Braidwood used to be the home of the Tallaganda local government area. However, following changes to local government areas by the New South Wales Government, it is now part of the Palerang council. The eastern office of the council is in the town. The local paper is now called the "Braidwood Times".
After the gold rush, Braidwood became a quiet and poor country town. Because of this, very little new building work was carried out, and so the town still has most of its original streetscape and architecture intact. On 30 March 2006 the town and its setting were listed on the NSW State Heritage Register. There were arguments between those who wanted to save the town's old fashioned charm and those wishing to develop it.
The town has several times been used for movie making locations:
Local stories say that Mick Jagger wrote one of his major hits while in Braidwood making the "Ned Kelly" film; but there is no agreement as to which one.
Hunan
Hunan (; ) is a province of South Central China, in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting (The characters in the name "Hunan" mean "lake" and "south"). Hunan is sometimes called 湘|湘 () for short, after the Xiang River which runs through the province.
Its major cities are Changde, Changsha, Chenzhou, Hengyang, Huaihua, Loudi, Shaoyang, Xiangtan, Yiyang, Yongzhou, Yueyang, Zhangjiajie and Zhuzhou.
Guangxi
Guangxi is a provincial-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China where mostly Zhuang people live.
Guangxi's capital in Nanning. Other major cities are Baise, Beihai, Chongzuo, Fangchenggang, Guigang, Guilin, Hechi, Hezhou, Laibin, Liuzhou, Qinzhou, Wuzhou and Yulin.
It is near Vietnam and has many mountains. It is one of the border frontiers of Chinese civilization. Even in the 20th century it was considered an open, wild territory. The current name "Guang" itself means "expanse", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in 226 AD. It was given provincial level status during the Yuan Dynasty and in 1949 was reformed as one of China's five autonomous regions.
Season structure of the NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL) season is divided into the regular season and the Stanley Cup playoffs. In the regular season, teams play 82 games which determine their standings. The eight top teams in each conference enter the playoff elimination tournament to determine the Stanley Cup champion.
2009 Formula One World Championship
The 2009 Formula One season was the 60th FIA Formula One World Championship season. There were ten teams signed up to compete in the championship. Jenson Button became the Drivers' World Champion and Brawn GP won the Constructors' title.
The season is scheduled to take place over 17 rounds, and started with the Australian Grand Prix on 29 March 2009. It will end on 1 November 2009 with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which is included on the race calendar for the first time and will be held at the new Yas Marina Circuit. The French and Canadian Grands Prix, which were both included in the 2008 championship, have been dropped.
Several rule changes will be implemented by the FIA, in a bid to cut costs due to the global financial crisis and to improve the on-track spectacle. New rules governing tyres, aerodynamics and Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS), among others, are some of the biggest changes in the Formula One regulations for several decades. FIA initially declared a change in deciding the World Driver's Championship, with the driver winning the most races to be declared as the champion. However, this decision was later reversed following protests from Formula One Teams Association.
Drivers did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.
Bucegi Mountains
The Bucegi Mountains () are in central Romania to the south of the city Braşov. They are part of the Southern Carpathians group of the Carpathian Mountains of Europe.
To the east, the Bucegi Mountains have a very steep slope. This is towards the popular tourist destination Prahova Valley. At a higher elevation is the Bucegi Plateau, where wind and rain have turned the rocks into brilliant figures such as the Sphinx and "Babele".
The Bucegi is thought to be the Dacian holy mountain "Kogainon". Here, the mythical figure Zalmoxis resided in a cave.
Private First Class
In many armed forces in the world, Private First Class (PFC) is a rank held by junior enlisted persons.
Lance Corporal
Lance corporal is a military rank, used by many armed forces around the world, and also by some police forces and other uniformed organizations. It is below the rank of Corporal, and is typically the lowest Non-commissioned officer, usually equivalent to the NATO Rank Grade OR-3.
Ned Kelly (1970 movie)
Ned Kelly is the name of a 1970 movie. It was the second Australian feature length movie about Australian bushranger Ned Kelly. The first was "The Story of the Kelly Gang" made in 1906, the world's first feature movie.
"Ned Kelly" was directed by Tony Richardson, and starred Mick Jagger as Ned Kelly. Scottish-born actor Mark McManus played the part of Kelly's friend Joe Byrne. It was a British production, but was filmed entirely in Australia, shot mostly around Braidwood in southern New South Wales, with mainly Australian actors.
There were many problems in getting the movie made. The actors' union, Actors' Equity and some of Ned Kelly's relatives protested strongly about Jagger having the lead role. Many people were upset that the movie would be made in New South Wales, not Victoria, where the Kellys had lived.
Jagger's girlfriend, Marianne Faithfull, had come to Australia to play the lead female role of Ned's sister, Maggie. Their relationship was breaking up, and she took an overdose of sleeping tablets soon after she got to Sydney. She was in a coma, but soon got better and went back to England. She was replaced by an unknown Australian actress, Diane Craig. During filming, Jagger was hurt by a pistol misfiring. The actors and crew were often sick, some costumes were destroyed by fire, and Jagger's co-star, Mark McManus, just escaped serious injury when a horse-drawn cart in which he was riding overturned during filming.
The body armour costume worn by Jagger is on show at the Queanbeyan City Library, with the letters "MJ" scratched on the inside. The head-piece has been stolen, the loss of an important piece of Australian movie history.
The movie was very poorly received at its opening, and is still said to be Richardson's worst movie. Neither Richardson or Jagger went to the London opening of the movie.
The movie has music written by Shel Silverstein, and performed by Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings, with one song by Jagger.
Spring Offensive
The 1918 Spring Offensive or Kaiserschlacht ("Kaiser's Battle"), also known as the Ludendorff Offensive, was a series of German attacks along the Western Front during World War I, which marked the deepest advances by either side since 1914. The German authorities had realised that their only remaining chance of victory was to defeat the Allies before the overwhelming human and matériel resources of the United States could be deployed. They also had the advantage of nearly 50 divisions freed by the Russian surrender (Treaty of Brest-Litovsk).
The first and most important part was called Operation Michael. It used new infiltration tactics. After the offensive, not enough German soldiers were still alive to win the war anymore.
Tang Enbo
Tang Enbo (1898-1959) was a Nationalist general in the Republic of China. Along with Hu Zongnan and Xue Yue, Tang was one of the Kuomintang generals most respected by the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Xue Yue