the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
Since the detailed concerns of industrial and consumer markets vary widely, so do the contracts, and "grades" tend to vary significantly from country to country.
A proliferation of contract units, terms, and futures contracts have evolved,
These are more than one-to-one representations of units of a given type of commodity, and represent more than simple futures contracts for future deliveries.
These serve a variety of purposes from simple gambling to price insurance.
Oil and fiat
Building on the infrastructure and credit and settlement networks established for food and precious metals, many such markets have proliferated drastically in the late 20th century.
Oil was the first form of energy so widely traded, and the fluctuations in the oil markets are of particular political interest.
Some commodity market speculation is directly related to the stability of certain states, e.g. during the Gulf War, speculation on the survival of the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
Similar political stability concerns have from time to time driven the price of oil.
Some argue that this is not so much a commodity market but more of an assassination market speculating on the survival (or not) of Saddam or other leaders whose personal decisions may cause oil supply to fluctuate by military action.
The oil market is, however, an exception.
Most markets are not so tied to the politics of volatile regions - even natural gas tends to be more stable, as it is not traded across oceans by tanker as extensively.
Commodity markets and protectionism
Developing countries (democratic or not) have been moved to harden their currencies, accept IMF rules, join the WTO, and submit to a broad regime of reforms that amount to a "hedge" against being isolated.
China's entry into the WTO signalled the end of truly isolated nations entirely managing their own currency and affairs.
The need for stable currency and predictable clearing and rules-based handling of trade disputes, has led to a global trade hegemony - many nations "hedging" on a global scale against each other's anticipated "protectionism", were they to fail to join the WTO.
There are signs, however, that this regime is far from perfect.
U.S. trade sanctions against Canadian softwood lumber (within NAFTA) and foreign steel (except for NAFTA partners Canada and Mexico) in 2002 signalled a shift in policy towards a tougher regime perhaps more driven by political concerns - jobs, industrial policy, even sustainable forestry and logging practices.
Non-conventional commodities
Nature's commodity outputs
Commodity thinking is undergoing a more direct revival thanks to the theorists of "natural capital" whose products, some economists argue, are the only genuine commodities - air, water, and calories we consume being mostly interchangeable when they are free of pollution or disease.
Whether we wish to think of these things as tradeable commodities rather than birthrights has been a major source of controversy in many nations.
Most types of environmental economics consider the shift to measuring them inevitable, arguing that reframing political economy to consider the flow of these basic commodities first and foremost, helps avoids use of any military fiat except to protect "natural capital" itself, and basing credit-worthiness more strictly on commitment to preserving biodiversity aligns the long-term interests of ecoregions, societies, and individuals.
They seek relatively conservative sustainable development schemes that would be amenable to measuring well-being over long periods of time, typically "seven generations", in line with Native American thought.
Weather trading
However, this is not the only way in which commodity thinking interacts with ecologists' thinking.
Hedging began as a way to escape the consequences of damage done by natural conditions.
It has matured not only into a system of interlocking guarantees, but also into a system of indirectly trading on the actual damage done by weather, using "weather derivatives".
For a price, this relieves the purchaser of the following types of concerns:
"Will a freeze hurt the Brazilian coffee crop?
Will there be a drought in the U.S. Corn Belt?
What are the chances that we will have a cold winter, driving natural gas prices higher and creating havoc in Florida orange areas?
What is the status of El Niño?"
"Economy is three fifths of ecology" argues Mike Nickerson, one of many economic theorists who holds that nature's productive services and waste disposal services are poorly accounted for.
One way to fairly allocate the waste disposal capacity of nature is "cap and trade" market structure that is used to trade toxic emissions rights in the United States, e.g. SO2.
This is in effect a "negative commodity", a right to throw something away.
In this market, the atmosphere's capacity to absorb certain amounts of pollutants is measured, divided into units, and traded amongst various market players.
Those who emit more SO2 must pay those who emit less.
Critics of such schemes argue that unauthorized or unregulated emissions still happen, and that "grandfathering" schemes often permit major polluters, such as the state governments' own agencies, or poorer countries, to expand emissions and take jobs, while the SO2 output still floats over the border and causes death.
Community as commodity?
This highlights one of the major issues with global commodity markets of either the positive or negative kind.
A community must somehow believe that the commodity instrument is real, enforceable, and well worth paying for.
The capacity to repay debt, as in the current global credit money regime anchored by the Bank for International Settlements, does not in their view correspond to measurable benefits to human well-being worldwide.
They seek a fairer way for societies to compete in the global markets that will not require conversion of natural capital to natural resources, nor human capital to move to developed nations in order to find work.
Some economic systems by green economists would replace the "gold standard" with a "biodiversity standard".
It remains to be seen if such plans have any merit other than as political ways to draw attention to the way capitalism itself interacts with life.
Is human life a commodity?
The green economists and the more conservative environmental economics argue that not only natural ecologies, but also the life of the individual human being is treated as a commodity by the global markets.
A good example is the IPCC calculations cited by the Global Commons Institute as placing a value on a human life in the developed world "15x higher" than in the developing world, based solely on the ability to pay to prevent climate change.
Is free time a commodity?
Accepting this result, some argue that to put a price on both is the most reasonable way to proceed to optimize and increase that value relative to other goods or services.
This has led to efforts in measuring well-being, to assign a commercial "value of life", and to the theory of Natural Capitalism - fusions of green and neoclassical approaches - which focus predictably on energy and material efficiency, i.e. using far less of any given commodity input to achieve the same service outputs as a result.
Indian economist Amartya Sen, applying this thinking to human freedom itself, argued in his 1999 book "Development as Freedom" that human free time was the only real service, and that sustainable development was best defined as freeing human time.
Sen won The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1999 (sometimes incorrectly called the "Nobel Prize in Economics") and based his book on invited lectures he gave at the World Bank.
Currency market
National Futures Association
Futures Quotes & Charts
Some political economists proposed the labour theory of value (first introduced by John Locke, developed by Adam Smith and later Karl Marx), according to which labour is the real source of value.
Many political economists also looked at the accelerating development of technology, whose role in economic and social relationships grew ever more important.
In the present, political economy means a variety of different, but related, approaches to studying economic and political behavior, which range from combining economics with other fields, to using different fundamental assumptions which challenge those of orthodox economics:
Political economy is most commonly used to refer to interdisciplinary studies that draw on economics, law and political science in order to understand how political institutions, the political environment and capitalism influence each other.
Within political science, the term refers to modern liberal, realist, Marxian, and constructivist theories concerning the relationship between economic and political power among and within states.
This is also of concern to students of economic history and institutional economics.
Disciplines which relate to political economy
Sociology is the study of the effects of involvement in society on individuals as members of groups, and how this changes their ability to function.
Many sociologists begin from a framework of production determining relationship drawn from Karl Marx.
Economics, because it studies activity and price relationships and the effects of scarcity, grew out of political economy.
It is often used in political economy to argue policy effects and study the results of actions, and it is often in opposition to political economy, in that many, if not most, practicing economists see political economy as being a hindrance to the operation of economic forces.
From the point of view of political economy, economics is a branch of the entire study, and economics has, at its basis, a theory of political economy which should be open to examination.
Constitutional economics is the academic sub-discipline of economics and constitutionalism.
It is often described as "the economic analysis of constitutional law."
Constitutional economics tries to explain the selection of different constitutional rules "limiting the choices and activities of economic and political agencies."
This is different from the approach of traditional economics.
Also, constitutional economics studies how well economic decisions of the state agree with the existing constitutional economic rights of its citizens."
For example, proper distribution of economic and financial resources of the state is a big question for every nation.
Constitutional economics helps finding a legal mechanism to solve this problem.
Ecology is often involved in political economy, because human activity is one of the single largest effects on the environment, and because it is the suitability of the environment for human beings which is one of the central concerns of most human beings.
The ecological effects of economic activity on the environment have spurred the creation of a great deal of research studying means of changing the incentives balance of the market economy.
This work is particularly controversial in its interaction with economics, since it questions the fundamental econometric assumptions of market economics and their basic validity.
National System of Political Economy - Major work on political economy by Friedrich List.
Harmony of Interests -Work contrasting American System and British System of political economy by Henry C. Carey
History of Economic Thought  - This compendium hosted by the New School has collected bios on over 500 economists and introductions to many schools of thought.
Global Political Economy Net  Mailing lists and other reference material by scholars of "The Global Political Economy"
Political Economy of Space Development
New Political Economy Research Center, University of Sheffield .
Constitutional Political Economy  Most recent issues online.
George Mason University: Buchanan Center for Political Economy
Political Economic Research Institute, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
The Political Economy of British Columbia's Rainforests by Elmer G. Wiens
The Journal of Australian Political Economy
Discipline of Political Economy at The University of Sydney
The My Lai Massacre (pronounced IPA: [mi.˧˩˥'lɐːj˧˧], Thảm sát Mỹ Lai, Thảm sát Sơn Mỹ) was the killing of hundreds of civilians by United States troops at the village of My Lai, Vietnam on March 16, 1968.
A memorial in My Lai lists the names of 504 victims.
Before the massacre, U.S. troops were told that all of the "true" civilians would be at the market and the remaining people would be members of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam.
When the soldiers got to the village they did not find any NLF troops.
Despite this, many troopers began to kill the villagers, mainly elderly people, women, and children.
The killings were covered up by the United States Army, but eventually 26 soldiers were charged with being involved in the killings.
However, only one, Lieutenant William Calley was found guilty.
1968 in the United States
Henry II of England, also known as Henry II Curtmantle (Le Mans, France, 5 March 1133 – Chinon, France, 6 July 1189) was also  Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France.
He was as much concerned with his empire in France as he was with England.
Henry was the son of Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou and Empress Matilda.
He married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152 and was crowned king in 1154.
His children included the future kings Richard, who would later lead many battles, and John.
Although he was King of England, he never learnt the English language because his family had come over from Normandy in 1066.
They spoke Norman French.
Henry was intelligent and well educated.
He spoke Latin fluently, which was the language of educated people in Europe at that time.
All documents and laws were written in Latin.
Henry II fought against his brother Geoffrey in Montsoreau in 1152.
Henry II's succession to the English throne was agreed in 1153.
He finally came to the throne in 1154 upon Stephen I's death.
He reduced the power of the barons who had become very powerful in Stephen's reign, and in 1166 introduced trial by jury.
Henry had an impact on law and order.
Henry was unhappy at the law not being applied the same way across England.
His changes helped to develop the common law.
Laws would be applied in the same way in all towns and villages, so everyone was treated the same and with fairness.
To do this, Henry made a number of changes:
He created Judges who would travel the country and judge the cases of people accused of breaking the law.
This meant that all crimes were judged by the King or his judges, and not by local people who might be biased or influenced.
Allowed judges to collect the fines from punishments of small crimes, which would be then given to the King.
Created trial by jury.
This meant that a number of local men, usually 12, would judge the case of someone accused of a crime.
If they believed he was guilty, he would be punished, and if they believed he was innocent, he would be set free.
Trial by Jury was a safer alternative to trial by ordeal, which could result in injury or death.
In 1215, after Pope Innocent III banned priests from overseeing ordeals, jury trials became the most common way of judging criminals.
One of the big events that happened during his rule was the killing of Thomas Becket.
Henry and Becket were old friends who found themselves in dispute once Becket became the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Their dispute was over the role of the Church in England.
Becket was trying to increase the power of church courts that had lost power when Henry had made major changes to the legal system.
Four knights killed Becket in Canterbury Cathedral.
Legend say that the knights had heard Henry say, "Who will rid me of this turbulent (rebellious) priest?"
Henry's first son, William, Count of Poitiers, died as a baby.
In 1170, Henry and Eleanor's fifteen-year-old son, Henry, was crowned king (another reason for Henry's arguing with Thomas Becket, who did not agree with the Henry being crowned).
Young Henry never ruled and is not in the list of the kings and queens of England; he became known as Henry the Young King so he was not confused with his nephew Henry III.
Henry and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, had five sons and three daughters: William, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, John, Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan.
Henry tried to take Eleanor's lands from her (and from their son Richard).
This led to conflict between Henry on the one side and his wife and sons on the other.
Henry had constant struggles and battles against the French King Louis VII of France, but also many conflicts with his own wife and sons.
His legitimate children were, he said, "the real bastards".
When they were not fighting each other, they were fighting Henry.
First Richard and young Henry fought their father for possession of lands they had been promised.
They were defeated, and fined heavily.
Later Eleanor and young Henry led a civil war against King Henry (1173/74).
This Henry also won, just.
Richard finally defeated Henry in a battle for Anjou (1189).
Richard had the help of Philip II, who was now King of France.
Weak, ill and deserted by all except an illegitimate son, Henry died in France in 1189 aged 56.
He ruled for 35 years and was succeeded by Richard.
1133 births
1189 deaths
People from Le Mans
Damascus (sometimes called the city of Jasmin) is the capital city of Syria.
IIn Arabic, its name is Dimashq (دِمَشْق‎).
It is the largest city in Syria with about 4.8 million people living there.
Damascus is thought to be one of oldest cities in the world that still has people living in it.
It is believed that people started living in Damascus as long ago as 8000 BC to 10,000 BC (12000 years ago).
Damascus used to play an important role as an important trade center.
Now it is not because of political development in the region as well as the development of modern trade.
Most goods produced in Damascus, as well as in Syria, are distributed to countries of the Arabian peninsula.
Damascus also holds an annual international trade exposition in the fall since 1955.
There are many universities in Damascus, one public university: Damascus University.
while other universities are private, such as the Syrian Private University  and the aljazeera Private University.
Damascus has many historical sites dating back to many different periods of the city's history.
Since the city has been built up with every passing job, it has become almost impossible to dig out all the ruins of Damascus that lie up to 8 feet (2.4 m) below the modern level.
The Citadel of Damascus is located in the northwest corner of the Old City.
The Bab Sharqi street is filled with small shops and leads to the old Christian quarter of Bab Tuma (St. Thomas's Gate).
Medhat Pasha Souq is also a main market in Damascus and was named after Medhat Pasha.
At the end of the Bab Sharqi street, one reaches the House of Ananias, an underground chapel that was the cellar of Ananias's house.
The Umayyad Mosque, also known as the Grand Mosque of Damascus, is one of the largest mosques in the world and also one of the oldest sites of continuous prayer since the rise of Islam.
eDamascus - Official website for Damascus
Damascus Online - Brief information about the city of Damascus
The 31 Places to Go in 2010 (The New York Times)
A heart-lung transplant is a type of surgery to help people who have very sick hearts and lungs.
In this surgery, the patient's own heart and lungs are taken out and replaced by healthy organs.
During the surgery, a machine called a heart-lung machine pumps blood for the patient and breathes for him or her.
Not many heart-lung transplants are done, because there are not enough donated organs.
Ronald William George Barker (25 September 1929 – 3 October 2005), popularly known as Ronnie Barker and (as a writer) Gerald Wiley, was an English comic actor, comedian and writer.
He was born in Bedford and moved to Oxford when he was four.
He is best known for being on the very popular television variety show The Two Ronnies.
Also on the show was his long-time comedy partner, Ronnie Corbett.
Barker died of heart failure in Adderbury, Oxfordshire.
People from Bedfordshire
Actors from Oxfordshire
Guantánamo Bay () is a bay in Guantánamo province, Cuba.
It is at the southeastern end of Cuba ().
It is the largest harbour on the south side of the island.
It is surrounded by steep hills creating an enclave cut off from its immediate hinterland.
The bay was originally named Guantánamo by the Taíno.
Christopher Columbus landed at the location known as Fisherman's Point in 1494, naming it Puerto Grande.
On landing, Columbus's crew found Taíno fisherman preparing a feast for the local chieftain.
When Spanish settlers took control of the island, the bay became a vital harbor on the south side of the island.
The bay has been the focus of military activities for a long time.
In the colonial era, British troops tried to land there, during the War of the Jenkin's Ear.
That war was between England and Spain.
It took place between 1739 and 1742.
The troops could land in the bay, and later tried to take the city Santiago de Cuba.
As it turned out, this was impossible.
So the troops claimed the bay as theirs, and named it Cumberland Harbour.
Later they left the island again, because some of their troops had died from tropical diseases.
The United States tried to buy the whole island of Cuba.
In the Spanish-American war, US troops occupied the bay, because there was a harbour there.
The Treaty of Paris, between the United States and Spain ended the war.
It gave Cuba its independence from Spain.
Spain also gave the territory of Puerto Rico, and the islands of Guam and the Philippines to the United States, amongst others.
Cuba, however, came under the political and military infuence of the United States.
The US then put presidents and dictators at the head of the Cuban state.
These were of course favorable to the interests of the United States.
In 1902 the Platt Amendment was appended to the Constitution of the Cuban state.
It limited the freedom of Cuba very much.
It also said that some territory in the south should be ceded to the United States for a military base.
Bound by the amendment, the Cubans granted the US a 99-year lease to the territory.
This treaty was made by Tomás Estrada Palma, an American citizen, who became the first President of Cuba.
The current Cuban government rejects the Cuban-American Treaty because it violates article 52 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.
The Cuban government therefore considers the U.S. presence in Guantánamo to be an illegal occupation of the area.
Article 52 declares a treaty void only if its conclusion has been procured by the threat or use of force in violation of international law.
The US Naval base
The southern portion of the bay is surrounded by the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, a naval base established in 1898.
Recently, the base began hosting a detainment camp for suspected militant combatants collected (actions that are viewed by some as kidnapping) from both Afghanistan and Iraq, or from secret NATO prisons in Europe (discovered recently, in 2006).
The base, sometimes called "GTMO" or "Gitmo", covers 116 km² (about 45 square miles) on the western and eastern banks of the bay.
It was established in 1898, when the United States obtained control of Cuba from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American War, following the 1898 invasion of Guantánamo Bay.
The U.S. government obtained a perpetual lease that began on February 23, 1903.
Wikisource links
Texts of United States - Cuban agreements and treaty of 1934
U.S. sources
Read Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding Guantánamo Detainees
Official U.S. military website
www.jtftmo.southcom.mil – "Joint Task Force-Guantanamo's official website."
Official U.S. NAV base website
NSGtmo.navy.mil  – "U.S. Naval Station Guantánamo Bay Cuba: The United States' oldest overseas Naval Base"
Official website of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs
www.cubaminrex.cu  – "Guantánamo: U.S. Black Hole"
Maps and photos
Photos  Hosted by Brad Beckett
Virtual 3D Walk-through of Camp Delta (from the Art project Zone*Interdite)
Guantánamo Province, a province of Cuba that contains the city
Guantánamo Bay, a bay in the south of Cuba
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, a naval base used by the United States, located in that bay
This article is about the province in Cuba.
For other titular locales and uses, see Guantanamo (disambiguation).
Guantánamo is the easternmost province of Cuba.
Its capital is also called Guantánamo.
Other towns include Baracoa.
The province surrounds the important U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay.
The original settlement was done by Catalan families from the Ampurdan region of north-eastern Catalunya, Spain in 1764.
British forces had occupied the area for over 40 years and Scot-Irish settlers were a constant preoccupation to the Spanish auhorities.
In 1805, when the French were forced out of St. Domingue (Haiti) 35,000 French settlers were given lands in Cuba, many French families settled in the Guantanamo area becoming coffee and cacao planters meaning that many buildings are comparable to those of the French Quarter of New Orleans in the U.S. state of Louisiana.
The province is only 80 km away from Haiti its closest point, across the Windward Passage and close enough to see lights on Haiti on a clear night.
Guantánamo also has a number of immigrants from Jamaica.
The Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa mountains (Sierra de Cristal) dominate the province, dividing both climate and landscape.
The northern coast, battered by prevailing winds, is the wettest part of the country, while the south, sheltered and dry, is the hottest.
The north is characterized by rainforests, while the south is arid and has many cacti.
Caimanera
Imías
Maisí (La Máquina)
Manuel Tames
Niceto Pérez
San Antonio del Sur
Yateras (Palenque)
Parque Nacional Alejandro de Humboldt
Havana Province, (Spanish - Provincia de la Habana), Cuba, is a former provinces of Cuba.
On January 1, 2011 it was split into two new provinces - Artemisa Province and Mayabeque Province.
The capital city of Havana is a separate province, surrounded by the province of Havana.
It had 711 066 people in the 2002 census.
The largest city is the city of Artemisa with a population of 75,000 in 2003.
The second largest city is Güines (70,000).
Havana Province had borders with the city of Havana, Pinar del Rio, and Matanzas.
It has coasts in the south and north and has dozens of towns and a few small cities which rank between the 20 and 40 largest of the island.
Most of the province's farms raise cattle and grow food, mostly potatos and fruit.
Unlike much of Cuba, sugar and tobacco play only a small role in the province's economy.
There is also much industrialization in the province, with many electricity plants and sugar mills.
2010 disestablishments
Santiago de Cuba Province is the second most populated province in the island of Cuba.
It has a population of about 1.2 million people.
The largest city Santiago de Cuba (554,000) is its main administrative center.
Other large cities include Palma Soriano (125,000), Contramaestre (88,000), Mayarí Arriba (80,000), San Luis (65,000) and Songo-la Maya (50,000).
The province has many material resources such as iron and nickel.
The economy, however, relies mostly on agriculture, with large plantations growing bananas, cacao and coffee dotting the landscape.
The natural beauty of the area is attracting many tourists from both the rest of Cuba and from overseas.
Mella
Palma Soriano
Mayarí Arriba
La Maya
Cruce de los Baños
Historical use of the name
Before 1976, Cuba was divided into six provinces.
One of these was Oriente province, which was, prior to 1905, known as Santiago de Cuba province.
See Historical provinces of Cuba.
Santiago.cu (in spanish)
Travel info on Santiago de Cuba
santiagoencuba.com (in spanish)
Granma is one of the provinces of Cuba.
Other towns on it include Manzanillo (a port on the Gulf of Guacanayabo) and Pilón.
The province was named after the yacht Granma, used by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro to land in Cuba with 82 guerrillas in 1956.
The American who sold them the secondhand yacht in Mexico apparently had named it after his grandmother   and so the name of this vessel, with its non-standard spelling, became an icon for Cuban communism.
Not every Cuban realizes that the name would translate as abuela, although all can name the mothership of the revolution.
The province is full of reminders of the Cuban Revolution, and the Cuban Wars of Independence.
There are many plaques in the mountains that commemorate the struggle against Fulgencio Batista.
The struggle took place in 1959.
It is believed there are many unmarked grave sites from the different wars.
The sites of the various palenques, the fortified hamlets of escaped slaves can be found.
These have been uncovered by archaeological digs.
Most of these are not specially marked.
Recently a hurricane destroyed the site of Castro's headquarters at La Plata.
This is the area where Raúl Castro holds his centre of power and it is said to be the site of secret garrisons.
Bartolomé Masó
Bayamo
Buey Arriba
Campechuela
Cauto Cristo
Guisa
Jiguaní
Media Luna
Niquero
Pilón
Río Cauto
Granma Portal  (Spanish)
Vail is a town in the American state of Colorado.
It is best known for being one of the best places to ski in North America.
The Vail Ski Resort is the largest ski resort with only one mountain in North American.
In 2006, it was believed that 4,859 people lived in Vail.
Holguín is one of the provinces of Cuba, the second most populous after Ciudad de la Habana.
Its major cities include Holguín (the capital), Banes, Antilla, Mayarí, and Moa.
The province has a population of slightly over one million people.
Its territory extends over more than 9300 km², 25 percent of which are covered by forest.
Christopher Columbus landed in what is believed to have been today's Holguín province on October 27, 1492.
The Holguín province was established in 1978, when it was split from the Oriente region.
Illustrious Sons
General Calixto García (1839-1898), 19th century patriot.
Wars of independence from Spain.
General Fulgencio Batista Zaldivar (1901–1973), President, Dictator of Cuba.
At Moa, there is a huge cobalt processing plant with shipping facilities, that was constructed with the help of foreign aid , much of it from Canada.
There are chrome, nickel, iron and steel plants dotted throughout the province as well.
Antilla
Báguanos
Banes
Cacocum
Cueto
Frank País (Cayo Mambí)
Gibara
Holguín
Mayarí
Rafael Freyre
Sagua de Tánamo
Urbano Noris
Holguín.cu
Holguín Hotels
Las Tunas is one of the provinces of Cuba.
Major towns include Puerto Padre and Amancio, as well as the capital, Victoria de Las Tunas (sometimes known as Las Tunas, or even just Tuna).
The Las Tunas province was established in 1978, when it was split from the Oriente region.
The southern coast, which opens onto the Golfo de Guacanayabo, is marshy and characterised by mangroves.
This wet area is used to grow sugarcane in, as the wet climate is well suited for the crop.
Cattle are also grazed in the province, which was, until the 1975, part of the Oriente province that was divided into five smaller provinces by the Cuban government.
Victoria de Las Tunas was just a small market town until that year, and a large development program was started to modernise the town and connect it by road to Havana.
Amancio
Jesús Menéndez
Jobabo
Las Tunas (Victoria de Las Tunas)
Majibacoa (Calixto)
Manatí
Puerto Padre
Periodico 26  — Newspaper of Las Tunas Province (in English)
Las Tunas portal  (Spanish)
Paul James Hartley (born October 19, 1976) is a Scottish football player.
He currently plays for Celtic and the Scottish national team.
Scottish footballers
Camagüey is the largest of the provinces of Cuba.
Its capital is Camagüey.
Camagüey is mostly low lying, with no major hills or mountain ranges passing through the province.
Numerous large cays (including what used to be one of Fidel Castro's favourite fishing spots; the Archipiélago Jardines de la Reina) characterise both the northern and southern coasts.
Sandy beaches are found on both coasts also, and despite a large potential for tourism, the province has seen little development in that area.
Exception being Santa Lucía beach, on the North coast.
The economy of the Camagüey province is primarily cattle and sugar (in the north and south) farming, and the province is known for its cowboy culture, with rodeos frequently held.
Chickens and rice are also farmed, and a small citrus fruit industry exists.
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes
Guáimaro
Jimaguayú
Najasa
Nuevitas
Santa Cruz del Sur
Sibanicú
Sierra de Cubitas
Vertientes]
Ciego de Ávila is one of the provinces of Cuba, and was previously part of Camagüey Province.
Its capital is Ciego de Ávila, which lies on the Carretera Central (central highway), and the second city is Morón, farther north.
Off the north coast of the province are a string of cayos (cays) - these islands are being developed as tourist resorts, principally Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo.
Baraguá (Gaspar)
Chambas
Ciego de Ávila
Ciro Redondo
Florencia
Majagua
Morón
Primero de Enero
Sancti Spíritus is one of the provinces of Cuba.
Its capital is the identically named Sancti Spíritus.
Another major city is Trinidad.
The southern coast of the province is flat, but the western portion of Sancti Spíritus province is mountainous.
Tourism is a big earner for the province, with most of the tourism revolving around the old city of Trinidad, a World Heritage listed city which has dozens of colonial buildings (and almost no 20th century architecture) dating back to the Spanish conquest in the 1500s, and, as with most of Cuba, sugarcane and cattle are important commodities.
Some tobacco and rice is also grown.
During the 1600s, both Dutch and British pirates attempted to take control of what is today Sancti Spíritus province, but with little success, as the Spanish garrison held them off.
From 1660 to 1680, Trinidad was plagued by pirates from Jamaica and Tortuga, and on two occasions, pirates razed the city.
Cabaiguán
Fomento
Jatibonico
La Sierpe
Taguasco
Yaguajay
Hotel del Rijo in Sancti Spíritus
A complete list of Sancti Spíritus Hotel's
Hotel Zaza in Sancti Spíritus
Villa Clara is one of the provinces of Cuba.
Its main cities are Santa Clara (the capital), Sagua La Grande, Placetas, Camajuaní, Remedios and Caibarién.
Around Santa Clara, the land rises into the Alturas de Santa Clara.
The highest point in the province is in the Alturas, at 464 m above sea level.
Villa Clara also has numerous lakes, which are used for both water sports and fishing.
The largest Cuban river to drain into the Atlantic, Río Sagua la Grande, is also in Villa Clara province.
The provinces of Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus, and Villa Clara were once all part of the now defunct province of Las Villas.
Santa Clara was the capital of Las Villas.
Famous People of Villa Clara
Joe Carollo - former mayor of Miami, USA
Richard Egues - Musician (Orquesta Aragon)
Francisco Gatorno - actor
Rubén González - pianist
Livan Hernandez - baseball player
Orlando Hernandez - baseball player
Wilfredo Lam - painter
Benny "Kid" Paret - boxer
José Bernal - artist
Amelia Pelaez - painter
Zaida del Rio - painter
Aida ida Morales - painter
Caibarién
Camajuaní
Cifuentes
Corralillo
Encrucijada
Manicaragua
Placetas
Quemado de Güines
Ranchuelo
Remedios
Sagua La Grande
Cienfuegos (Spanish for "one hundred fires") is one of the provinces of Cuba.
The capital city of the province is also called Cienfuegos and was founded by French settlers in 1819.
Cienfuegos is the smallest province in Cuba.
Growing and processing sugar is very important to its economy.
There are many sugar mills and sugarcane plantations across the province.
Scuba diving is a popular activity in Cienfuegos.
There are many underwater caves and over 50 places for diving.
There are also waterfalls in the mountains of the province.
The provinces of Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus, and Villa Clara were once all part of the Santa Clara province.
The Santa Clara province no longer exists though.
Abreus
Aguada de Pasajeros
Cumanayagua
Lajas
Palmira
Rodas
1819 establishments in North America
19th-century establishments in Cuba
Major towns
Major towns in the province include Cárdenas, Jovellanos and the capital of the same name, Matanzas.
Geographical location and appearance
The southern coast has one of Cuba's most distinctive features: an enormous marsh, Ciénaga de Zapata that covers both the southern part of the province and the peninsula of the same name.
East of the peninsula lies the Bay of Pigs, the site of the failed US backed invasion.
Agramonte
Alacranes
Arcos de Canasí
Bolondrón
Cárdenas
Guamacaro
Jagüey Grande
Juan Gualberto Gómez
Los Arabos
Manguito
Pedro Betancourt
Perico
San Antonio de Cabezas
San José de los Ramos
Santa Ana (Cidra)
Unión de Reyes
Cuba Demographycs
Provincial portal
Pinar del Río is one of the provinces of Cuba.
It is at the western end of the island of Cuba.
The Pinar del Río province has one of Cuba's three main mountain ranges, the Cordillera de Guaniguanico.
The mountains are divided into the easterly Sierra del Rosario and the westerly Sierra de los Organos.
These form a landscape characterised by steep sided limestone hills and flat, fertile valleys.
The province relies on tobacco farming, with Pinar del Río producing 70% of Cuba's crop, used to make the cigars that are so prized overseas.
The best tobacco, used for more expensive cigar brands, is grown in the flat lands of San Juan y Martínez.
Tourism in the Viñales Valley is another important part of the economy.
Consolación del Sur
Guane
Los Palacios
Minas de Matahambre
San Juan y Martínez
Viñales
Famous people from Pinar del Río
Omar Ajete - baseball player
Danys Baez - baseball player
José Contreras - baseball player
Silvia Costa - high jumper
Emeterio González - javelin thrower
Pedro Luis Lazo - baseball player
Omar Linares - baseball player
Alay Soler - baseball player
Visit Hotel Pinar del Río
Villa Maria La Gorda
Villa Cabo San Antonio
Hotel Moka, Las Terrazas, Pinar del Río
The Isle of Youth () is the largest Cuban island after Cuba itself.
It is the sixth-largest island in the West Indies.
The island has an area of  and is  southwest of mainland Cuba.
It is across the Gulf of Batabanó.
The island is almost directly south of Havana and Pinar del Río.
Because of its superficial extension, population and for its economic characteristics, it is considered to be a Special Municipality.
It is therefore not a part of any province.
The Isle of Youth is administered directly by the central government of Cuba.
The island is the  largest of the 350 in the Canarreos Archipelago ().
It has an estimated population of 100,000.
The capital and largest city is Nueva Gerona in the north.
The second-largest and oldest city is Santa Fe in the interior.
Other communities are Columbia, Mac Kinley, Santa Bárbara, Cuchilla Alta, Punta del Este, Sierra de Caballos and Sierra de Casas.
The island was called the Isle of Pines () before 1978.
Little is known of the pre-Columbian history of the island, though a cave complex near the Punta del Este beach preserves 235 ancient drawings made by the native population.
The island first became known to Europeans during Christopher Columbus's third voyage to the New World  in 1494.
Columbus named the island La Evangelista and claimed it for Spain; the island would also come to be known Isla de Cotorras ("Isle of Parrots") and Isla de Tesoros ("Treasure Island") at various points in its history.
Pirate activity in and around the area left its trace in English literature.
Both Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and Peter Pan by James Matthew Barrie are rooted in part on accounts of the island and its native and pirate inhabitants, as well as long dugout canoes (which were often used by pirates as well as indigenous peoples) and the great American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) on the island.
Following the victory of the United States in the Spanish-American War, Spain dropped all claims to Cuba under the terms of the 1898 Treaty of Paris.
The Isla de la Juventud was not mentioned in the Platt Amendment, which defined Cuba's boundaries, and this led to competing claims to the island by the United States and the now-independent Cuba.
In 1907, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the island did not belong to the United States.
A treaty was signed between the U.S. and Cuba in 1925, recognizing Cuban ownership.
Much of the island is covered with pine forests.
These are the source of the island's large lumber industry.
The northern region of the island has low ridges from which marble is quarried.
The southern region is an elevated plain.
Agriculture and fishing are the island's main industries, with citrus fruit and vegetables being grown.
A black sand beach was formed by volcanic activity.
The island has a mild climate, but is known for frequent hurricanes.
Until the Cuban government expropriated all foreign-owned property in the early 1960s, much land was owned by Americans.
Hydrofoils (kometas) and motorized catamarans will make the trip in between two and three hours.
A much slower and larger cargo ferry takes around six hours to make the crossing, but is cheaper.
The province has only one municipality, also named Isla de la Juventud.
From 1953 to 1955, Cuban leader Fidel Castro was imprisoned in the Presidio Modelo on the Isla de la Juventud by the regime of Fulgencio Batista after leading the failed July 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks in the Oriente Province.
Later, Castro used the same facility to imprison counterrevolutionaries and dissidents, such as Huber Matos (once a comandante of rebel troops supporting the Cuban Revolution but later came into conflict with Cuban government), who claims to have been tortured there , and Armando F. Valladares.
Presidio Modelo is now closed, and turned into a museum.
It is replaced by more modern prisons.
These include (MAS = maximum security prison; COR = correctional):
Prison El Guayabo (MAS)
Center for Reeducation of Minors (COR)
Correctional Los Colonos (COR)
Paquito Rosales Cueto (1 y 11) (COR)
Prison la 60 (Columbia) (COR)
Supreme Court decision of 1907
Satellite view of the Isle of Youth (interactive)
Municipality page  (Spanish)
1925 establishments in North America
Georges Prosper Remi (22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), also known as Hergé, was a Belgian cartoonist.
Hergé was born in Etterbeek, Brussels from a group of people in Belgium called Walloons.
He's best known for his 23 completed comics, The Adventures of Tintin.
Hergé first made Tintin in Le Petit Vingtième in 1929.
Hergé died in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert on 3 March 1983.
Hergé's life's work is watched over by his widow.
She shut down Hergé Studios.
She started the Hergé Foundation in 1987.
It is now called Moulinsart S.A.
http://www.lambiek.net/artists/h/herge.htm - Hergé Georges Remi - Overview of his life and works
http://us.tintin.com/about/herge/ - Hergé
Belgian comics artists
People from Brussels-Capital Region
Disease-related deaths in Belgium
Louisville is the largest city in the state of Kentucky in the USA.
The settlement that became the City of Louisville was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark.
It is named after King Louis XVI of France.
It was an important riverport in the 19th century.
Many people come to the city in May for the Kentucky Derby horse race.
18th-century establishments in Kentucky
Mount Rushmore is a famous mountain and memorial near Keystone, South Dakota in the United States.
It has the heads of four of America's presidents carved on it: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.
The Mount Rushmore Memorial is a part of the United States Presidential Memorial, which covers  and is  above sea level (altitude).
Before the memorial was carved, the native Lakota Indian Tribes called the mountain "Six Grandfathers".
Later, the mountain was named after Charles E. Rushmore, a well-known later, after an expedition in 1885.
The memorial was carved to help increase tourism in the Black Hills, where the mountain was.
Doane Robinson first formed the idea in 1923.
Robinson convinced many influential people in the United States government to build the memorial.
Congress soon allowed construction to begin.
The work of carving the heads began on March 3, 1925.
It was completed on October 31, 1941.
Geography of South Dakota
Highest-grossing movies
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest became the third movie in cinema history to gross over $1 billion and is the 24th highest-grossing movie of all time.
2006 wide-release movies
Movies released in 2006
American movies
Argentine movies
Australian movies
Bengali movies
Bollywood movies
Brazilian movies
British movies
French movies
Mexican movies
Pakistani movies
Russian movies
South Korean movies
Tamil movies
Telugu movies
Notable deaths
Movie debuts
Katie Cassidy – When a Stranger Calls
Rebecca Hall – Starter for 10
Armie Hammer – Flicka
Jennifer Hudson – Dreamgirls
Rami Malek — Night at the Museum
Eddie Redmayne – Like Minds
Mia Wasikowska – Suburban Mayhem
Box Office Mojo movie release schedule.
West Side Story is a musical.
It is based on Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet.
The book was written by Arthur Laurents.
The music was composed by Leonard Bernstein, and the lyrics were written by Stephen Sondheim.
It starred Carol Lawrence as Maria.
West Side Story opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on 26 September 1957, and on the West End at Her Majesty's Theatre on 12 December 1958.
On the West End, was performed 1,039 times.
It won two Tony Awards.
The musical was adapted to a movie in 1961, starring Natalie Wood.
The movie won 10 Academy Awards.
The movie was remade in 2021.
The story is set in the Upper West Side neighborhood in New York City in the mid-1950s.
It is a working-class neighborhood with a mixture of ethnic groups. (
In the early 1960s, much of the neighborhood would be cleared to make room for Lincoln Center, which changed the neighborhood.)
The musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds.
The Sharks' members are immigrants from Puerto Rico.
The Jets' members are Caucasian (their families immigrated from places like Ireland and Italy).
The two gangs fight over which areas in the neighborhood belong to which gang.
Riff, the Jets' leader
Bernardo, the Sharks' leader
Maria, Bernardo's sister
Tony, Riff's best friend.
Tony used to be a member of the Jets.
After meeting her at a dance, Tony falls in love with Maria.
This causes more fighting between the Jets and the Sharks.
The play's dark theme, sophisticated music, long dance scenes, and focus on social problems made West Side Story a turning point in American musical theatre.
Musical theatre
The Official West Side Story website
Lorscheid is on an old Roman road.
Many archaeological settlements are nearby.
The village is first mentioned in the inventory of the Abbey of St. Maximin in Trier for the year 1211.
The origins of thrash metal are generally traced to the late 1970s and early 1980s, when a number of bands began incorporating the sound of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with elements of hardcore punk and more specifically Thrashcore, creating a new genre and developing into a separate movement from punk rock.
This genre is much more aggressive compared to its relative, speed metal.
Deaths Head
Destroyer 666
Hellhammer
Anthrax is a thrash metal band from New York City, USA.
Anthrax released their first album in 1984.
Anthrax was one of the most popular bands of the 1980s thrash metal scene.
They have sold about 15 million albums as of 2012.
Anthrax was formed by guitar players Scott Ian and Danny Lilker in 1981.
Scott Ian named the band after the disease after he saw it in a biology textbook, as he thought it sounded "sufficiently evil" (evil enough).
For Anthrax's first few years they went through a number of singers, bassists, and drummers, and finally settled on singer Neil Turbin, lead guitarist Dan Spitz (when Danny Lilker switched to bass) and drummer Charlie Benante before releasing their first album Fistful Of Metal.
Danny Lilker was fired for being too relaxed and Neil Turbin was fired as he was trying to take full control of the band.
They were replaced with Frank Bello (Charlie Benante's nephew) and Joey Belladonna.
This lineup recorded four albums; Spreading the Disease, Among The Living, State Of Euphoria and Persistence Of Time.