CASE 442 - 2013 The year that was

January

January 11 – The French military begins a five-month intervention into the Northern Mali conflict, targeting the militant Islamist Ansar Dine group.
January 16–20 – Thirty-nine international workers and one security guard die in a hostage crisis at a natural gas facility near In Aménas, Algeria.


February

February 12 – North Korea conducts its third underground nuclear test, prompting widespread condemnation and tightened economic sanctions from the international community.
February 15 – A meteor explodes over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, injuring 1,491 people and damaging over 4,300 buildings. It is the most powerful meteor to strike Earth's atmosphere in over a century. The incident, along with a coincidental flyby of a larger asteroid, prompts international concern regarding the vulnerability of the planet to meteor strikes.
February 21 – American scientists use a 3D printer to create a living lab-grown ear from collagen and animal ear cell cultures. In the future, it is hoped, similar ears could be grown to order as transplants for human patients suffering from ear trauma or amputation.
February 28 – Benedict XVI resigns as pope, becoming the first to do so since Gregory XII in 1415, and the first to do so voluntarily since Celestine V in 1294.[13]

March

March 13 – Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina is elected the 266th pope, whereupon he takes the name Francis and becomes the first Jesuit pope, the first pope from the Americas, and the first pope from the Southern Hemisphere.
March 24 – 2012–2013 Central African Republic conflict: Central African Republic President François Bozizé flees to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after rebel forces capture the nation's capital, Bangui.
March 25 – The European Union agrees to a €10 billion economic bailout for Cyprus. The bailout loan will be equally split between the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility, and the International Monetary Fund. The deal precipitates a banking crisis in the island nation.
March 27 – Canada becomes the first country to withdraw from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.


April

April 24: Savar building collapse.
April 2 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Arms Trade Treaty to regulate the international trade of conventional weapons.
April 15 – Two Chechen Islamist brothers explode two bombs at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States, killing 3 and injuring 264 others.
April 24 – An eight-story commercial building collapses in Savar Upazila near the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, leaving 1,129 dead[27] and 2,500 injured. The accident is the deadliest non-terrorist structural collapse in modern times[31] and the third-worst industrial disaster in history.


May

May 15 – In a study published in the scientific journal Nature, researchers from Oregon Health & Science University in the United States describe the first creation of human embryonic stem cells by cloning.


June

June 6 – American Edward Snowden discloses operations engaged in by a U.S. government mass surveillance program to news publications and flees the country, later being granted temporary asylum in Russia.
June 14–30 – Flash floods and landslides in the Indian states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh kill more than 5,700 people and trap more than 20,000.


July

July 1 – Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union.
July 3 – Amid mass protests across Egypt, President Mohamed Morsi is deposed in a military coup d'état, leading to widespread violence.


September

September 21 – al-Shabaab Islamic militants attack the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, killing at least 62 civilians and wounding over 170.


October

October 10 – Delegates from some 140 countries and territories sign the Minamata Treaty, a UNEP treaty designed to protect human health and the environment from emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds.
October 18 – Saudi Arabia rejects a seat on the United Nations Security Council, making it the first country to reject a seat on the Security Council. Jordan takes the seat on December 6.


November

November 8: Typhoon Haiyan.
November 5 – Mangalyaan is launched by India from its lauchpad in Sriharikota.
November 8 – Typhoon Haiyan ("Yolanda"), one of the strongest tropical cyclones on record, hits the Philippines and Vietnam, causing devastation with at least 6,241 dead.
November 12 – Three Studies of Lucian Freud, a series of portraits of Lucian Freud by the British painter Francis Bacon, sells for US$142.4 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for an auctioned work of art.
November 21 – Euromaidan pro-EU demonstrations begin in Ukraine after President Viktor Yanukovych rejects an economic association agreement between the European Union and Ukraine in favor of closer ties to Russia.
November 24 – Iran agrees to limit their nuclear development program in exchange for sanctions relief.


December

December 7 – Ninth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization delegates sign the Bali Package agreement aimed at loosening global trade barriers.
December 14 – Chinese spacecraft Chang'e 3, carrying the Yutu rover, becomes the first spacecraft to "soft"-land on the Moon since 1976 and the third ever robotic rover to do so.
December 15 – Fighting between ethnic Dinka and Nuer members of the presidential guard breaks out in the capital city of South Sudan and precipitates the South Sudanese political crisis.
December 29 and December 30 – December 2013 Volgograd bombings Chechen terrorists from the North Caucasus detonate two bombs on the Volgograd transportation system. Together, the explosions kill 34 people and raise concerns over security at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

CASE 441 - The history of Croatia

Croatia is a former Yugoslav republic on the Adriatic Sea. It is about the size of West Virginia. Part of Croatia is a barren, rocky region lying in the Dinaric Alps. The Zagorje region north of the capital, Zagreb, is a land of rolling hills, and the fertile agricultural region of the Pannonian Plain is bordered by the Drava, Danube, and Sava Rivers in the east. Over one-third of Croatia is forested.

Croatia, at one time the Roman province of Pannonia, was settled in the 7th century by the Croats. They converted to Christianity between the 7th and 9th centuries and adopted the Roman alphabet under the suzerainty of Charlemagne. In 925, the Croats defeated Byzantine and Frankish invaders and established their own independent kingdom, which reached its peak during the 11th century. A civil war ensued in 1089, which later led to the country being conquered by the Hungarians in 1091. The signing of the Pacta Conventa by Croatian tribal chiefs and the Hungarian king in 1102 united the two nations politically under the Hungarian monarch, but Croatia retained its autonomy.

Following the defeat of the Hungarians by the Turks at the battle of Mohács in 1526, Croatia (along with Hungary) elected Austrian archduke Ferdinand of Hapsburg as their king. After the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian kingdom in 1867, Croatia became part of Hungary until the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918 following its defeat in World War I. On Oct. 29, 1918, Croatia proclaimed its independence and joined in union with Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The name was changed to Yugoslavia in 1929.

When Germany invaded Yugoslavia in 1941, Croatia became a Nazi puppet state. Croatian Fascists, the Ustachi, slaughtered countless Serbs and Jews during the war. After Germany was defeated in 1945, Croatia was made into a republic of the newly reconstituted Communist nation of Yugoslavia; however, Croatian nationalism persisted. After Yugoslavian leader Josip Broz Tito's death in 1980, Croatia's demands for independence increased in intensity.

In 1990, free elections were held, and the Communists were defeated by a nationalist party led by Franjo Tudjman. In June 1991, the Croatian parliament passed a declaration of independence from Yugoslavia. Six months of intensive fighting with the Serbian-dominated Yugoslavian army followed, claiming thousands of lives and wreaking mass destruction.

UN Security Forces Enter Croatia in an Effort to Keep the Peace

A UN cease-fire was arranged on Jan. 2, 1992. The UN Security Council in February approved sending a 14,000-member peacekeeping force to monitor the agreement and protect the minority Serbs in Croatia. In a 1993 referendum, the Serb-occupied portion of Croatia (Krajina) resoundingly voted for integration with Serbs in Bosnia and Serbia proper. Although the Zagreb government and representatives of Krajina signed a cease-fire in March 1994, further negotiations broke down. In a lightning-quick operation, the Croatian army retook western Slavonia in May 1995. Similarly, in August, the central Croatian region of Krajina, held by Serbs, was returned to Zagreb's control.

Announcing on television in 1999 that “national issues are more important than democracy,” President Tudjman continued to alienate Croatians with his authoritarian rule, out-of-touch nationalism, and disastrous handling of the war-shattered economy. In Dec. 1999, Tudjman died. Less than a month later, his Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Party was defeated by a reformist center-left coalition headed by Ivica Racan. But in Nov. 2003 elections, a right-wing coalition led by the nationalist HDZ once again assumed power. The new prime minister, Ivo Sanader, claims that his party is now far less nationalistic and far more moderate than its earlier incarnation under Tudjman. In 2003, Croatia formally submitted its application to join the EU. First elected in 2000, President Stjepan Mesic was reelected in Jan. 2005. In April 2008, NATO invited Croatia to join the alliance at a summit in Bucharest. Final status is expected in January 2009.

Croatia officially joined NATO in April 2009. In June 2009, the European Union canceled talks about membership with Croatia due to outstanding unresolved issues with the Slovenian border.

Prime Minister Ivo Sanader unexpectedly resigned from politics in July 2009. Parliament approved Jadranka Kosor as the new prime minister the same month. She is the country's first woman prime minister. Ivo Josipovic of the opposition Social Democrats was elected president in January 2010. In parliamentary elections in December 2011, a four-party center-left coalition defeated the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), taking 81 out of 151 seats. The Social Democratic Party won 61 seats, and its leader Zoran Milanovic became prime minister.

CASE 440 - Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American global aerospace, warfare and defense technology company formed by the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company was the fourth-largest defense contractor in the world as of 2010. Northrop Grumman employs over 68,000 people worldwide. It reported revenues of 25.218 billion in 2012. Northrop Grumman ranks No. 72 on the 2011 Fortune 500 list of America's largest corporations and ranks in the top ten military-friendly employers. It is headquartered in West Falls Church, Virginia.

Originally formed in California in 1939 by Jack Northrop, the Northrop Corporation was reincorporated in Delaware in 1985. In 1994, Northrop Aircraft merged with Grumman Aerospace to create the company Northrop Grumman. Both companies were previously established in the airplane manufacturing industry, and Grumman was famous for building the Apollo Lunar Module. The new company acquired Westinghouse Electronic Systems in 1996, a major manufacturer of radar systems. Logicon, a defense computer contractor, was added in 1997. Previously, Logicon had acquired Geodynamics Corporation in March 1996 and Syscon Corporation in February 1995. A merger between Northrop Grumman and competitor Lockheed Martin was not approved by the U.S. government in 1998, slowing the consolidation of the defense industry. But in 1999, the company acquired Teledyne Ryan, which developed surveillance systems and unmanned aircraft. It also acquired California Microwave, Inc., and Data Procurement Corporation, in the same year. Other entities acquired included Xetron Corporation (1996), Inter-National Research Institute Inc. (1998), Federal Data Corporation (2000), Navia Aviation As (2000), Comptek Research, Inc. (2000), and Sterling Software, Inc. (2000). In 1999, Northrop Grumman and SAIC created AMSEC LLC as a joint venture, which grew "from $100 million in revenue in 2000 to approximately $500 million in fiscal year 2007."

In 2001 the company acquired Litton Industries, a shipbuilder and provider of defense electronics systems to the U.S. Navy. During the acquisition process, a new Delaware holding company, NNG, Inc., was formed. It merged with Northrop Grumman through a one-for-one common shares exchange in April 2001. Both Northrop Grumman and Litton became subsidiaries of the new holding company. The original Northrop Grumman Corporation then changed its name to Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation; the holding company, NNG, Inc., changed its name to Northrop Grumman Corporation.

Later that year, Newport News Shipbuilding was added to the company. And in 2002, Northrop Grumman acquired TRW, which became the Space Technology sector based in Redondo Beach, CA, and the Mission Systems sector based in Reston, VA, with sole interest in their space systems and laser systems manufacturing. The Aeronautical division was sold to Goodrich, and the automotive divisions were spun off and retained the TRW name. On March 19, 1999, Northrop Grumman announced to restate its fourth-quarter results downward to a net loss because of problems related to its dealings with start-up satellite launch company Kistler Aerospace Corp. On November 1, 2001, Northrop Grumman restated its third-quarter profit after stopping work on two ships for American Classic Voyages, which filed for bankruptcy protection.

There have been many other smaller acquisitions throughout this period. On July 20, 2007, Northrop Grumman became the sole owner of Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites. Northrop Grumman and Boeing have also recently collaborated on a design concept for NASA's upcoming Orion spacecraft (previously the Crew Exploration Vehicle), but that contract went to rival Lockheed Martin on August 31, 2006. Northrop Grumman announced formation of a new business unit (sector), effective January 1, 2006 called Technical Services. In 2007 Northrop Grumman created the National Workforce Centers. The National Workforce centers are an alternative to Offshoring. Current locations are Auburn, AL; Corsicana, TX; Fairmont, WV; Helena, MT; Johnstown, PA; and Lebanon, VA. The Rapid City, SD location will be closing in January 2012. Three employees of Northrop Grumman (Thomas Howes, Marc Gonsalves and Keith Stansell) were freed in July 2008 after five years of captivity in Colombia during Operation Jaque. Tom Janis, also a former Northrop employee, was killed by the FARC shortly after their plane crashed in the Colombian jungle in 2003. In January 2008, Northrop Grumman combined its Newport News and Ship Systems sectors into a new business unit named Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding. On March 31, 2011 this was spun off as Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc Northrop Grumman won a training-simulation contract in July 2013 potentially worth $490 million to support the U.S. Air Force's next-generation air-combat virtual-training network

CASE 439 - Marsh and Mclennan

Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. is a U.S. multinational professional services, risk management, and insurance brokerage firm with headquarters in New York was World trade centre floors from 93 to 100 control room and main offices and 295 employees there were killed on 911.

In 2012, it had approximately 54,000 employees and recorded an annual revenue of $11.9 billion. In 2013, Marsh & McLennan Companies was ranked the 228th largest corporation in the United States by the 2013 Fortune 500 list, and the 5th largest U.S. company in the diversified financial industry. Marsh & McLennan Companies was also ranked 29th on the 2012 Bloomberg Businessweek 50, the magazine's annual ranking of the S&P 500's top 50 performing companies.

On October 11, 2001, Marsh established a crisis consulting practice specializing in terrorism, with Ambassador L. Paul Bremer as Chairman and Andrew R. Daniels as President and COO. Marsh also announced a partnership with Control Risks Group to provide political risk assessment.

On July 8, 2004, Marsh completed the acquisition of Kroll Inc.[8] Jeffrey W. Greenberg called it an important strategic step. The company had employed terrorism expert John O'Neill, formerly of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

On October 14, 2004, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced the initiation of a civil action against Marsh, alleging impropriety in the steering of clients to insurers with whom the company maintained payoff agreements, and for soliciting rigged bids for insurance contracts from the insurers. The Attorney General announced that two AIG executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges in connection with this illegal course of conduct and stated, "There is simply no responsible argument for a system that rigs bids, stifles competition and cheats customers." Former CEO Jeffrey W. Greenberg resigned several weeks later. The suit was ultimately settled out of court.

On January 31, 2005, Marsh & Mclennan agreed on an $850-million settlement for its bid-rigging practices.

In July 2007, Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. was ranked first in Business Insurance's world's largest brokers list.

On September 14, 2007, Brian M. Storms, the CEO of Marsh's insurance brokerage unit, resigned. As Michael G. Cherkasky explained his departure, "we now need a different set of leadership and operational skills".

AIG, the world’s largest insurance company, and subsidiaries Marsh McLennan, ACE and Kroll, were run by the Greenberg family. With Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) member Maurice “Hank” Greenberg as the AIG godfather, the Familia’s tentacles curled around the heart of the tragedy. Hank’s son Jeffrey, a CFR member as well, was chairman of Marsh & McLennan, situated on floors throughout the North Tower of the World Trade Center as well as the top floors of the South Tower. Marsh also had ties to the CIA. Son Evan Greenberg, a CFR member, was CEO of ACE Limited, situated in Tower 7, which also contained AIG subsidiary Kroll, closely related to the CIA, also with an office in Tower 7. Tower 7 also contained offices of the FBI, Department of Defense, IRS (which contained prodigious amounts of corporate tax fraud corporate, including Enron’s), US Secret Service, Securities & Exchange Commission (with more stock fraud records), and Citibank’s Salomon Smith Barney, the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management and many other financial institutions.

CASE 438 - ITU, The UN's internet governence

The UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has been moving forward with plans to consider a number of proposals to takeover aspects of internet regulation and governance. There are a number of different proposals being submitted by different countries. The problem, of course, is that the setup of the ITU is not open to the public or open source such as many other things set up by the people for the people, and there are some special interests involved mainly by countries with oppressive governments looking to use this as a way to gain control over the internet for the sake of censorship, as well as local (often state-run or state-associated) telcos using the process to see if they can divert money from successful internet companies to their own bank accounts. While the ITU likes to present itself as merely a neutral meeting place for all of these proposals, what's been clear for a while is that the ITU leadership has taken an active role in encouraging, cultivating and supporting some of the more egregious proposals.
ITU also wants to organize worldwide and regional exhibitions and forums, such as ITU TELECOM WORLD, bringing together representatives of government and the telecommunications and ICT industry to exchange ideas, knowledge and technology. The ITU is active in areas including broadband Internet, latest-generation wireless technologies, aeronautical and maritime navigation, radio astronomy, satellite-based meteorology, convergence in fixed-mobile phone, Internet access, data, voice, TV broadcasting, and next-generation networks. ITU, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is a member of the United Nations Development Group. Its membership includes 193 Member States and around 700 Sector Members and Associates.



Current proposals look to take into account the prevalence of data communications. Proposals under consideration would establish regulatory oversight by the U.N. over security, fraud, traffic accounting as well as traffic flow, management of Internet Domain Names and IP addresses, and other aspects of the Internet that are currently governed either by community-based approaches such as Regional Internet Registries, ICANN, or largely national regulatory frameworks. The move by the ITU and some countries has alarmed many within the United States and within the Internet community. Indeed some European telecommunication services have proposed a so-called "sender pays" model that would require sources of Internet traffic to pay destinations, similar to the way funds are transferred between countries using the telephone. The WCIT-12 activity has been attacked by Google, which has characterized it as a threat to the "...free and open internet." On 22 November 2012, the European Parliament passed a resolution urging member states to prevent ITU WCIT-12 activity that would "negatively impact the internet, its architecture, operations, content and security, business relations, internet governance and the free flow of information online". The resolution asserted that "the ITU is not the appropriate body to assert regulatory authority over the internet".
On 5 December 2012, the lower chamber of the United States Congress passed a resolution opposing U.N. governance of the Internet by a rare unanimous 397–0 vote. The resolution warned that "... proposals have been put forward for consideration at the [WCIT-12] that would fundamentally alter the governance and operation of the Internet [and] would attempt to justify increased government control over the Internet", and stated that the policy of the United States is " to promote a global Internet free from government control and preserve and advance the successful Multistakeholder Model that governs the Internet today." The same resolution had previously been passed unanimously by the upper chamber of the Congress in September.
On 14 December 2012, an amended version of the Regulations was signed by 89 of the 152 countries. Countries that did not sign included the United States, Japan, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, India and the United Kingdom. The Head of the U.S. Delegation, Terry Kramer, said "We cannot support a treaty that is not supportive of the multistakeholder model of Internet governance". The disagreement appeared to be over some language in the revised ITRs referring to ITU roles in addressing unsolicited bulk communications, network security, and a resolution on Internet governance that called for government participation in Internet topics at various ITU forums. Despite the significant number countries not signing, the ITU organisation came out with a press release: "New global telecoms treaty agreed in Dubai

CASE 437 - The history of Brunei

The first recorded references to Brunei are in documents regarding China’s trading connections with ‘Puni’ in the 6th century AD during the Tang dynasty. Before the region embraced Islam, Brunei was within the boundaries of the Sumatran Srivijaya empire, then the ­Majapahit empire of Java. It may be hard to believe considering the country’s current diminutive size, but in the 15th and 16th centuries the sultanate held sway throughout Borneo and into the Philippines.

In 1838, British adventurer (and budding imperialist) James Brooke helped the sultan put down a rebellion from warlike inland tribes. As a reward, the sultan granted Brooke power over part of Sarawak, which in hindsight was a big mistake.Appointing himself Raja Brooke, James Brooke pacified the tribespeople, eliminated the much-feared Borneo pirates and forced a series of ‘treaties’ onto the sultan, whittling the country away until finally, in 1890, it was actually divided in half. This situation still exists today – if Bruneians want to get to the Temburong district, they have to go through Sarawak.Facing encroachment by land-grabbing European nations, Brunei became a British protectorate in 1888. But it got its own back when oil was discovered in 1929. The development of offshore oil fields in the 1960s allowed Brunei to flourish. In 1984 Sultan Sir Hassanal Bolkiah, the 29th of his line, led his country somewhat reluctantly into independence from Britain. He celebrated in typically grandiose style by building a US$350 million palace.

In 1998 the sultan’s son, Crown Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah, was proclaimed heir to the throne and began preparing for the role as Brunei’s next ruler and 30th sultan. That preparation included the 30-year-old prince’s wedding in September 2004 to 17-year-old Sarah Salleh, in a ceremony attended by thousands of guests. While Brunei may not be facing the same promise of prosperity that existed when the current sultan took the throne in 1967, it’s clear that the sultan sees the crown prince’s careful apprenticeship as crucial for the continuing (and absolute) rule of the monarchy.

There was a whiff of reform in November 2004 when the sultan amended the constitution to allow for the first parliamentary elections in 40 years. However, only one-third of parliamentarians will be publicly elected and the rest will still be hand-picked by the sultan, when and if the election ever happens (Bruneians are still waiting).

In February 2007, Brunei joined Malaysia and Indonesia in signing a pledge to conserve and/or sustainably manage a 220,000-sq-km tract of rainforest in the heart of the island.

CASE 436 - The history of music - Part 2 / 1800's to the 1900

Please take a look at this webpage, it has every genre of music ever created from start to finish http://everynoise.com/engenremap.html

The 1800's to the 1900's

For centuries man had dreamed of capturing the sounds and music of his environment. Many had attempted it but no one had succeeded until Thomas Alva Edison discovered a method of recording and playing back sound. What had started out as an apparatus intended as part of an improved telephone led to the development of an instrument which would change the world, making it a happier, even a better, place to live. Here are the facts, in reverse order:

1878 Edison considered the use of compressed amplifiers to overcome the problem of lack of replay volume. The Englishmen, Horace Short and C.A. Parsons (the steam turbine expert) succeeded in perfecting the compressed air amplifiers known as Auxetophones but they were eventually used for other purposes.

1884 Emile Berliner, an American of German origin, recorded The Lords Prayer on an Edison cylinder machine. The original recording is preserved by the BBC in London.

1886 Edison was granted US patent 341 214 for a wax coated recording cylinder. This signified the beginning of the end of the tin foil coated cylinder.

1887 Berliner developed a successful method of modulating the sound-carrying groove laterally in the surface of a disc. (The groove on cylinders was modulated vertically.) He also invented a method of mass producing copies of an original recorded disc.

1888 Jesse Lippincott, a financier, took over the commercial exploitation of the Phonograph and the Graphophone as dictating machines on a lease and service contract. The Graphophone had been developed by Edisons rivals, Chichester Bell (the brother of Alexander Graham Bell) and Charles Tainter at the Volta laboratory and in terms of ease of operation and fidelity of sound reproduction it was a vast improvement on the phonograph. The use of either machine as an entertainment medium was still seen as a novelty.

1889 Coin-in-the slot public access replay facilities, a primitive form of juke box, which could be used in amusement arcades, became immensely popular in the US creating a demand for entertainment recordings, mainly comic monologues.

1890 Edisons Phonograph and the Bell-Tainter Graphophone were in intense competition for the popular market. The Phonograph was beginning to prove the more popular, and the New York Phonograph Company opened the first purpose-built recording studios.

1894 Pathe Freres started the world famous French company making phonographs and cylinders.

1895 By now recorded music as a medium of entertainment had become firmly established with the public. The demand for recordings provided the incentive for research and investment in the infant record business.

1896 Eldridge R. Johnson designed and manufactured a clockwork spring motor which helped establish F. Seamans National Gramophone Company of New York as a serious rival to the Phonograph and the Graphophone Companies.

1900 E.R. Johnson first used the his masters voice trademark

As the 1900's began, the variety of music genre began to grow exponentially it seems. Ragtime, big band, jazz, folk, blues, crooning, scat, country/western, funk, be bop, rock, southern rock, disco, punk, break dance, hip-hop, techno, acid jazz, progressive, alternative, house music and many other types and variables were formed. Rock and country/western spawned southern rock. Progressive and jazz combined to form acid jazz. After disco came break dancing which then followed with hip-hop, techno and house music. So as the instruments and supporting technology changed, the way we expressed ourselves with music also seems to have changed.

CASE 435 - The history of Qatar

Qatar is an independent and sovereign State situated in the midway of the Western coast of the Arabian Gulf having a land and maritime boundary with Saudi Arabia, and also maritime boundaries with Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Iran. The State of Qatar with its arid desert climate extends over a Peninsula of about 200 Kilometers long and 100 Kilometers wide covering a total area of 11850 square Kilometers including a number of Islands and Islets. Its the richest country in the world by capita 88,222 dollars a year for 1.8 million people.

Historically, the Peninsula of Qatar witnessed various cultures and civilizations in various phases in the history of mankind even during the Stone Age or Neolithic period. A recent discovery on the edge of an Island in the West of Qatar indicates the human presence during this period of pre-historic period. Discovery of a 6th millennium BC site at Shagra, in the South-east of Qatar revealed the key role the sea (Gulf) played in the lives of Shagra’s inhabitants. Excavation at Al-Khore in the North-east of Qatar, Bir Zekrit and Ras Abaruk and the discovery of pottery and Flint, Flint-scraper tool, Rim of painted ceramic and vessels there indicates Qatar’s connection with the Al-Ubaid civilization which flourished in the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates during the period of 5th –4th millennium BC. There had also been barter trade system between the settlements at Qatar and the Ubaid Mesopotamia and the exchange of commodities were mainly pottery and dried fish. Qatar has lived through the Bronze age, ruled by the Ottomans, Kassite empire, the Greeks, Romans, The Sasanid empire, an Islamic period, the Umayyad and the Abbasid period, A Portuguese era in the 16th century, the Bani Khalid era and The British empire in the 1800's.

The Modern history of Qatar began in the early 18th century; when the present Al-Thani ruling family of Qatar, which originated from the Al-Maadhid (a branch of Bani Tamim) tribe of Ushaiqir in the province of Al-Washm of Nejd, arrived in the southern part of Qatar. In the middle of the 18th century the family moved to the northern part of Qatar that is Zubara, Ruwais and Fuwairat.During the 1950s and 1960s gradually increasing oil revenues brought prosperity, rapid immigration, substantial social progress, and the beginnings of Qatar's modern history. When the U.K. announced a policy in 1968 (reaffirmed in March 1971) of ending the treaty relationships with the Persian Gulf sheikdoms, Qatar joined the other eight states then under British protection (the seven trucial sheikdoms—the present United Arab Emirates--and Bahrain) in a plan to form a union of Arab emirates. By mid-1971, as the termination date of the British treaty relationship (end of 1971) approached, the nine still had not agreed on terms of union. Accordingly, Qatar declared independence as a separate entity and became the fully independent State of Qatar on September 3, 1971. In February 1972, the Heir Apparent, Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, deposed his cousin, Ahmed bin Ali Al Thani, and assumed power. Key members of the Al Thani family supported this move, which took place without violence or signs of political unrest.[1] On June 27, 1995, the Deputy Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, deposed his father Khalifa bin Hamad in a bloodless coup. An unsuccessful counter-coup was staged in 1996. The Emir and his father are now reconciled, though some supporters of the counter-coup remain in prison. The Emir announced his intention for Qatar to move toward democracy and has permitted a freer and more open press and municipal elections as a precursor to expected parliamentary elections. Qatari citizens approved a new constitution via public referendum in April 2003, which came into force in June 20

The future is looking even better for qatar after a better than expected 2006 Asian games Qatar has been given the 2022 FIFA World cup and will bid for the 2024 Olympic games.

CASE 434 - Our sun and Sirius, Binery twins

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. With a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, it is almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. The name "Sirius" is derived from the Ancient Greek: Σείριος Seirios ("glowing" or "scorcher"). The star has the Bayer designation Alpha Canis Majoris (α CMa). What the naked eye perceives as a single star is actually a binary star system which in turn is connected and rotates with our own sun, consisting of a white main-sequence star of spectral type A1V, termed Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf companion of spectral type DA2, called Sirius B. The distance separating Sirius A from its companion varies between 8.1 and 31.5 AU

Sirius appears bright because of both its intrinsic luminosity and its proximity to Earth. At a distance of 2.6 parsecs (8.48 ly), as determined by the Hipparcos astrometry satellite, the Sirius system is one of Earth's near neighbors; for Northern-hemisphere observers between 30 degrees and 73 degrees of latitude (including almost all of Europe and North America), it is the closest star (after the Sun) that can be seen with a naked eye. Sirius is gradually moving closer to the Solar System, so it will slightly increase in brightness as it moves closer.

Sirius A is about twice as massive as the Sun and has an absolute visual magnitude of 1.42. It is 25 times more luminous than the Sun but has a significantly lower luminosity than other bright stars such as Canopus or Rigel. The system is between 200 and 300 million years old. It was originally composed of two bright bluish stars. The more massive of these, Sirius B, consumed its resources and became a red giant before shedding its outer layers and collapsing into its current state as a white dwarf around 120 million years ago. Sirius is also known colloquially as the "Dog Star", reflecting its prominence in its constellation, Canis Major (Greater Dog). The heliacal rising of Sirius marked the flooding of the Nile in Ancient Egypt and the "dog days" of summer for the ancient Greeks, while to the Polynesians it marked winter and was an important star for navigation around the Pacific Ocean.

CASE 433 - RWE

RWE AG (until 1990: Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk AG), is a German electric utilities company based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Through its various subsidiaries, the energy company supplies electricity, water and gas to more than 20 million electricity customers and 10 million gas customers and 27 million water ccustomers principally in Europe. RWE is the second largest electricity producer in Germany. RWE previously owned American Water, the United States' largest investor-owned water utility, but this was divested in 2008. Subsidiary RWE Dea produces some of the oil and gas its parent sells (annual production is around 2 million m3 of crude oil (about 365,000 boe) and 3 billion m3 of natural gas (about 18 million boe, 49,300 boe a day). It's the largest German investor in Egypt (RWE Dea and RWE Power do business in Egypt). Also RWE has begun building more wind farms, a renewable energy business

Fuel mix disclosure

RWE produced in 2007 electricity from the following sources: 32.9% hard coal, 35.2% lignite, 1.1% pumped storage, 2.4% renewables, 13.6% gas and 14.9% Nuclear power. In total, the company produced 324.3 TWh of electricity in 2007, which makes it the 2nd largest electricity producer in Europe, after EdF. Electricity production at the German branch of RWE had in 2006 the following environmental implications: 700 µg/kWh radioactive waste and 752 g/kWh CO2 emissions. In 2010 the company was responsible for 164.0 MTon of CO2, In 2007 the company ranked between the 28th and the 29th place of emitters by country.

History

The company was founded in Essen in 1898 as Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk Aktiengesellschaft (RWE). It first power station started operating in Essen in 1900. In 1900 the local municipalities together owned the majority of the company. In 2003 Dr Dietmar Kuhnt was succeeded by Harry Roels as CEO of the company and then in 2007 Dr. Juergen Grossmann took over. In July 2012, Peter Terium took over as CEO. On August 14, 2012 RWE AG announced that the company will cut 2,400 more jobs to reduce costs. Previously the company has announced to eliminate 5,000 jobs and 3,000 jobs through divestments as anticipated of closing all nuclear reactors by 2022.

Operations

RWE subsidiaries include:

RWE Power AG
RWE Energy
RWE Deutschland AG
RWE npower
RWE Dea AG
RWE Supply & Trading
RWE IT
RWE umwelt - environment, waste and water
RWE Innogy (new Renewables Company, from February 2008)
RWE Thames - Water