Wednesday, April 30, 2008


Cleves is a village located on the Ohio River in western Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,790 at the 2000 census. The village is named for John Cleves Symmes who lived here, laid out the original town site, and sold lots.

Cleves, Ohio Geography
Cleves is located at 39°9′40″N, 84°45′1″W (39.161241, -84.750288).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 1.6 square miles (4.1 km²), all of it land.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Plaza de soberanía
The plazas de soberanía ("places of sovereignty"), also referred as "África Septentrional Española" (Spanish North Africa) or simply "África Española" (Spanish Africa) are the current Spanish territories in continental North Africa, bordering Morocco.
Since the Reconquista, the Spanish have held numerous emplacements in North Africa. Many of them, such as Oran, have been lost, and nowadays, with an approximate population of 143,000 people, only the Autonomous Cities of Ceuta and Melilla, which constitute the two Plazas de Soberanía Mayores (or Large Places of Sovereignty), and the Islas Chafarinas, the Peñón de Alhucemas and the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, which constitute the three Plazas de Soberanía Menores (or Lesser Sovereignty Places), still forming part of Spain.

Demographics
Castile intervened in Northern Africa, competing with the Portuguese Empire, when Henry III of Castile began the colonization of the Canary Islands in 1402, sending Norman explorer Jean de Béthencourt.
The coastal villages and towns of Spain, Italy and Mediterranean islands were frequently attacked by Barbary pirates from North Africa, the Formentera was even temporarily left by its population and long stretches of the Spanish and Italian coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants. In 1514, 1515 and 1521 coasts of the Balearic Islands and the Spanish mainland were raided by infamous Turkish privateer and Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa. According to Robert Davis between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by North African pirates and sold as slaves between the 16th and 17th century. Slaves were captured mainly from seaside villages in Spain, Italy and Portugal.
In 1481 the papal Bull Æterni regis had granted all land south of the Canary Islands to Portugal. Only this archipelago and the cities of Sidi Ifni (14761524), known then as "Santa Cruz de Mar Pequeña", Melilla (conquered by Pedro de Estopiñán in 1497), Villa Cisneros (founded in 1502 in current Western Sahara), Mazalquivir (1505), Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera (1508), Oran (15091790), Algiers (151029), Bugia (151054), Tripoli (151151), Tunis (153569) and Ceuta (ceded by Portugal in 1668) remained as Spanish territory in Africa.
In 1848, Spanish troops conquered the Islas Chafarinas.
When Spain relinquished its protectorate over the North of Morocco, Spanish Morocco, and recognized Morocco's independence in 1956, it did not give over the plazas de soberanía, since Spain had held them since before its acquiring its protectorate. They are, however, part of the Greater Morocco claimed by nationalist movements in Morocco. Isla Perejil was occupied on July 11, 2002 by the Royal Moroccan Gendarmerie and troops, who were evicted without bloodshed by Spanish naval forces.

Saturday, April 26, 2008


The desktop metaphor is a set of unifying concepts currently used in a number of graphical user interfaces in computer operating systems. The monitor of a computer represents the user's desktop upon which documents and folders of documents can be placed. A document can be opened into a window, which represents a paper copy of the document placed on the desktop. Small applications called desk accessories are also available, such as a desk calculator, etc.
The desktop metaphor itself has been extended and stretched with various implementations, since access to features and usability of the computer are usually more important than maintaining the 'purity' of the metaphor. Hence we find trash cans on the desktop, as well as disks and network volumes (which can be thought of as filing cabinets — not something normally found on a desktop). Other features such as menu bars, task bars, or docks have no counterpart on a real-world desktop.
In recent times the filing cabinet and desktop metaphor has become less important, especially since the advent of very large storage media, which can make the easy navigation of large numbers of files and folders problematic. A more user-oriented approach is gaining favour, where the user can organise documents in a manner that facilitates his or her particular needs, rather than being forced to use a file-system view of the system. The addition of 'smart folders' and the like leads to a method of locating files that is based on search criteria important to the user, rather than its physical arrangement on disk, which, according to recent thought, is of no importance to the user.

Desktop metaphor Paper Paradigm

Interface Metaphor
History of the GUI
Desktop environment
WIMP (computing)
Virtual desktop
Tiling window manager
Operating system
File browser

Friday, April 25, 2008

Franz Schlegelberger
Louis Rudolph Franz Schlegelberger (born 23 October 1876 in Königsberg, East Prussia, now Kaliningrad, Russia; died 14 December 1970 in Flensburg) was State Secretary in the German Reich Ministry of Justice (RMJ) and served awhile as Justice Minister during the Third Reich. He was the highest-ranking defendant at the Nuremberg Judges' Trial.

In the Nazi Party
At the Nuremberg Judges' Trial Schlegelberger was one of the main accused. He was sentenced to life in prison for conspiracy to perpetrate war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In the reasons given for the judgment, it says:
'…that Schlegelberger supported the pretension of Hitler in his assumption of power to deal with life and death in disregard of even the pretense of judicial process. By his exhortations and directives, Schlegelberger contributed to the destruction of judicial independence. It was his signature on the decree of 7 February 1942 which imposed upon the Ministry of Justice and the courts the burden of the prosecution, trial, and disposal of the victims of Hitler's Night and Fog. For this he must be charged with primary responsibility.
'He was guilty of instituting and supporting procedures for the wholesale persecution of Jews and Poles. Concerning Jews, his ideas were less brutal than those of his associates, but they can scarcely be called humane. When the "final solution of the Jewish question" was under discussion, the question arose as to the disposition of half-Jews. The deportation of full Jews to the East was then in full swing throughout Germany. Schlegelberger was unwilling to extend the system to half-Jews.'
In 1950 the 74-year-old Schlegelberger was released owing to incapacity. For years afterward, he drew a monthly pension of DM 2,894 (for comparison, the average monthly income in Germany at that time was DM 535). Schlegelberger then lived in Flensburg.

Works

Michael Förster, Jurist im Dienst des Unrechts: Leben und Werk des ehemaligen Staatssekretärs im Reichsjustizministerium, Franz Schlegelberger, 1876-1970, Baden-Baden 1995
Eli Nathans, Franz Schlegelberger, Baden-Baden 1990
Arne Wulff, Staatssekretär Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Franz Schlegelberger, 1876-1970, Frankfurt am Main 1991

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Jerry Holkins
Keith Gerald "Jerry" Holkins (born February 6, 1976), is the writer of the popular webcomic Penny Arcade. Holkins goes by the pseudonym "Tycho Brahe" online. This is also the name of one of the two main characters of Penny Arcade, who is a cartoonized self-insertion of Holkins. However, as the character of Tycho was not originally meant to represent Holkins, the two have few physical similarities; they are primarily similar in their various interests and attitudes.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Royal Birmingham Society of Artists
The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists or RBSA is a learned society of artists and an art gallery based in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, England.

Royal Birmingham Society of Artists History
The RBSA continues its core activities today as an independent society promoting artists in the Birmingham area and exhibiting their work. The society also has a permanent collection of over 400 works, including pieces from illustrious figures from its past such as David Cox and Edward Burne-Jones.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008


A route nationale, or simply nationale, is a trunk road in France. Trunk roads are in France are significantly important roads which cross broad portions of the French territory, in opposition to secondary or communal roads who only serve local areas.
Their use is free, except for crossing of certain structures subjected to toll. They are opened for vehicles, except on certain sections having the status of motorway (autoroute).
France currently counts 30,500 km of nationales and not privately owned motorways. By way of comparison, Routes départementales cover a total distance of 365,000 km. The main trunk road network reflects the centralising tradition of France: the majority of them leave the gates of Paris. Indeed, trunk roads begin on the parvis of Notre-Dame of Paris at Kilometre Zero. To ensure an effective road network, new roads not serving Paris were created.

Route Nationale (France) History

Routes nationales 1 to 25



Route Nationale (France) Routes nationales 26 to 50



Routes nationales 51 to 75



Routes nationales 76 to 100



Routes nationales 101 to 125



Routes nationales 126 to 150



Routes nationales 176 to 200



Monday, April 21, 2008

The Alexiad

The Alexiad About the work
The work is divided into the prologue and 15 books (book summaries below are, of course, modern interpretations).

Prologue The difficulties of writing history, reasons to write this work, mourning for her husband
Book 1 : Alexius becomes general and Domestikos ton Scholon (Alexius youth - Urselius' revolt - Nicephorus Bryennios revolt - Normans prepare invasion)
Book 2 : The Komnenian revolt (Envy against the family - Causes of uprising - The escape - Rebels proclaim Alexius as emperor - Melissenos revolts - Komnenians seize Constantinople - Emperor Nikephoros III Votaneiates abdicates)
Book 3 : Alexius as Emperor (1081) and the internal problems with Doukas family (Maria of Alania and her son Constantine - Dismissal of her rumoured relationship with Alexius - About Alexius and his wife Irene - Alexius invents new ranks - Alexius publicly regrets for his soldiers crimes - Anna Dalassena (Alexius mother) is given imperial authority - About Anna Dalassena - Alexius' military preparations and alliances - Turks spread in Asia Minor - Normans cross Adriatic Sea).
Book 4 : War against Normans (1081-1082) (Robert Guiscard besieges Dyrrhachium - Venetian allies defeat Normans - Alexius arrives with his army - Normans win the Battle of Dyrrhachium, Alexius hardly escapes)
Book 5 : War against Normans (1082-1083) and first clash with the heretics (Financial collapse - Seizure of church property - Bohemund against Alexius - Alexius finally wins with a strategem - Prosecution of John Italus)
Book 6 : End of war against Normans (1085), death of Robert Guiscard, the Turks (Alexius recaptures Kastoria - Persecution of Manicheans (Paulicians)- Alexius in front of the Church Court - Conspiracy and revolt - The alliance with Venice - Death of Guiscard - Persecution of wizards and astrologers - Births of porphyrogenitoi - Alexius against the Turks - The Scythian threat (Pechenegs))
Book 7 : War against Scythians (1087-1090) (Beginning of hostilities - Crushing defeat of the imperial army - Cumans defeat Scythians, truce - Scythians violate truce - Activity of Turkish pirate Tzachas in western Anatolia - Expedition against Scythians)
Book 8 : End of Scythian war (1091), plots against the Emperor (Hostilities continuing - Crushing of Scythians at Levunium - Final success - Conspiracies and revolts)
Book 9 : Operations against Tzachas and Dalmatians (1092-1094), conspiracy of Nicephorus Diogenes (1094) (Operations against Tzachas - Operation in Crete and Cyprus - Elimination of Tzachas - Conspiracy of Nicephorus Diogenes - Capitulation of Dalmatians - Complementary to Diogenes)
Book 10 : One more heresy, war against Cumans, Beginning of 1st Crusade (1094-1097) (Neilos and Vlahernites - War against Cumans - Operations against Turks - Arrival of the first Crusaders - Crushing of Crusaders under Koukoupetros (Peter the Hermit) - Hugh of France - Sea surveillance by the Romans - Godfrey of Bouillon - Count Raul - Crusade leaders make homage to the Emperor - Bohemund)
Book 11 : 1st Crusade (1097-1104) (Crusaders besiege Nicaea - Liberation of Nicaea - Crusaders' successful operations - siege of Antioch - Successful Roman operations in Asia Minor - Capture of Antioch and Jerusalem - Operations in Asia - Massacre of Normans (Lombards) Crusaders by the Turks - Bohemund refuses to return Antioch to the Empire - Operations in Cilicia - Pisan fleet invades islands - Naval war with Genoans -Operations against Bohemund - Bohemund pretends to be dead)
Book 12 : Domestic conflicts, Norman preparations for the 2nd invasion (1105-1107) (Bohemond prepares landing to Illyrian coast - Operations of Tancred in Cilicia against the Empire - Queen Irene - Alexius organizes defense in the west - Conspiracy of Anemades - Georgios Taronites revolts in Trapezous - Isaacius Kontostefanos fails to guard the coast against Norman fleet - Beginning of Norman invasion)
Book 13 : Aaron's conspiracy, second Norman invasion (1107-1108) (Aaron's conspiracy - Siege of Dyrrhachium - Alexius tricks - Operations in mainland - Naval operations - Bohemund asks for peace - Peace negotiations - Bohemund's profile - Negotiations between Alexius and Bohemund - The Treaty of Devol)
Book 14 : Turks, Franks, Cumans and Manicheans (1108-1115) (Roman successes against the Turks - Problems with the Franks - Naval and land operations - Emperor's health problems - Operations against the Turks - Anna speaks for her methods in writing history - Prevention of a Cuman raid - Alexius fights manichaeism by persuasion or persecution)
Book 15 : Last expeditions, the Bogomils, death of Alexius (1116-1118) (War against the Turks and the new battle tactics - Victorious battle - Peace with the Turks - Sultan is murdered by his brother - Alexius builds the Orphanage - Suppression of Bogomils, burning of their leader Basil - last Illness and death of Alexius)

Sunday, April 20, 2008


Ratification is the act of giving official sanction to a formal document such as a treaty or constitution. It includes the process of adopting an international treaty by the legislature, a constitution, or another nationally binding document (such as an amendment to a constitution) by the agreement of multiple sub-national entities. The process of ratifying a constitution is most commonly observed in federations such as the United States, confederations or international organisations sui generis such as the European Union. A good example would be George Read ratifying the United States Constitution.
In unionized workplaces, during negotiations, a contract proposal by an employer, that may be acceptable to the collective bargaining committee, will be brought back for ratification, or a vote by the general membership, before the union can either accept or decline such a contract proposal. A ratified proposal means a "Yes" vote and will form the basis for the new CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) for that workplace.
Different organizations have different rules for how a constitutional change is ratified. Federations usually require the support of both the federal government and a certain percentage of the subsidiary entities. Some ratification processes also require a supermajority within legislatures.
The ratification of international treaties follows the same rules as the passing of laws in most democracies. Important exceptions are the United Kingdom, where treaty making is still a royal prerogative exercised by Her Majesty's Government, and the United States, where treaty ratification must be advised and consented to by a two-thirds majority in the U.S. Senate. The Senate does not actually ratify treaties. Once the Senate has given its advice and consent to ratification, the President ratifies the treaty by signing an instrument of ratification. While the United States House of Representatives does not vote on it at all, the requirement for Senate advice and consent to ratification makes it considerably more difficult in the US than in other democracies to rally enough political support for international treaties.
The application of the treaty or legislation is not possible until it has been ratified, so we think. Usually this must be done first by both parties (in July 2006 British bankers contested their extradition to the US in application of a treaty not yet ratified in America), or in a multilateral agreement it may be provided that a quorum (e.g. half) of the signatories must have ratified it.

Ratification Ireland
The ratification of the current Contitución was achieved by plebiscite

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Ciudad Rodrigo
Ciudad Rodrigo (Rodrigo City) is a small cathedral city in Salamanca Province in western Spain (approximately a population of 14000 inhabitants, and head of the judicial district).
The site of Ciudad Rodrigo, perched atop a rocky rise on the right bank of the River Águeda, has been occupied since the Neolithic Age.
Known as Mirobriga to the Celtic people known as the Vettones, the town was conquered by the Romans and renamed Augustobriga in honor of Caesar Augustus.
In 1110, Count Rodrigo González Girón repopulated the site and gave it his name: Civitas Roderici (Latin 'City of Roderick'; translates in Spanish to the present name).
King Ferdinand II of León completed the repopulation of the city, walled it and reconstructed the old Roman bridge spanning the River Águeda.
Ferdinand also re-established the bishopric as suffragan of the Diocese of Santiago de Compostella; comprises the greater part of the province of Salamanca, and a portion of the province of Cáceres, an act confirmed by Pope Alexander III in 1175. This led to the construction of the city's cathedral, an architectural hybrid of the Gothic and late Romanesque styles. The see finally succeeded that of Caliabria, which dated from the Visigothic era, and existed from 621 to 693. King Alfonso VIII gave the city of Caliabria to the Diocese of Ciudad Rodrigo in 1191. The first bishop of whom anything certain is known was called Pedro (1165); the most celebrated was the learned jurist Don Diego de Covarruvias y Leyva (1560).
Its position as a fortified town on the main road from Portugal to Salamanca made it militarily important in the middle years of the Napoleonic Peninsular War. The French marshal Michel Ney took Ciudad Rodrigo in 1810 after a 24-day siege. The British general Wellington began his 1812 campaign by taking Ciudad Rodrigo by storm on the night of January 19 - January 20, 1812 after preparatory operations lasting about 10 days. Allied losses were relatively light (about 600 casualties; 125 dead), although amongst the dead was General Mackinnon. Wellington then moved on Badajoz, whose taking was a much more bloody affair. There were two cannons embedded in the wall of the breach that caused most casualties. The 88th (an Irish regiment) took one of the guns while the 45th (Nottinghamshire Regiment) took the other.
In 1812, the then Viscount Wellington (later created a Duke) was rewarded for his victorious liberation of Spain with the hereditary Spanish ducal victory title of Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo.
Ciudad Rodrigo is also the birthplace of Siglo de Oro writer Feliciano de Silva.

Friday, April 18, 2008


Ayrton Senna da Silva (pronounced /aˈiɾtõ ˈsenɐ dɐ ˈsiwvɐ /, March 21, 1960May 1, 1994) was a Brazilian three-times Formula One world champion. Many aspects of Senna's talent marked him out as a remarkable driver: particularly his qualifying skill that yielded 65 pole positions in 162 races, and his wet-weather ability. But he also attracted criticism for his uncompromising race craft, a number of controversial incidents, and his bitter rivalry with Frenchman Alain Prost. He is also the last Formula 1 driver to have been killed in a race, while leading the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola in Italy. In 2000, Senna was posthumously inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.

Early life

Racing career
Senna entered karting competition at the age of 13.

Formula One
Senna scored his first World Championship point in his second Grand Prix at Kyalami in South Africa. He repeated the same finish two weeks later at the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder.
But his performance in the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix brought him a lot of attention. He qualified 13th on the grid and made rapid progress through the soaking streets of Monte Carlo. By Lap 19, he passed second place man Niki Lauda and began to cut the gap to race leader Prost. But before he could pass Prost the race was stopped on lap 31 for safety reasons as the rain grew even heavier.
He also entered an exhibition race to celebrate the opening of the new Nürburgring. Several top F1 drivers took part in the event, driving identical Mercedes 190E 2.3-16. Senna won from Lauda and Carlos Reutemann.

1984: Toleman
At Lotus in 1985 he was partnered by Italian driver Elio de Angelis. He set his first pole position at the season opener in Brazil at the Jacarepaguá Circuit in Rio de Janeiro, but retired with an electrical problem.
At the second round, held at the Autódromo do Estoril in Estoril, Portugal on April 21, 1985, he scored his first Grand Prix victory, winning from pole position in heavy rain which even saw second-place man Prost spin off into the wall.

Ayrton Senna 1985-7: Lotus
In 1988, thanks to the relationship he had built up with Honda throughout the 1987 season with Lotus, and with the approval of McLaren's number one driver and then-double world champion, Alain Prost, Senna joined the McLaren team. [4] The foundation for a fierce competition between Senna and Prost was laid, culminating in a number of dramatic race incidents between the two.

1988-93: McLaren
Senna had tried to join Williams in 1993 but was balked by Alain Prost who vetoed the move. Senna had even offered to drive for nothing such was the desire to be in the team of the early nineties, but a clause in Prosts contact meant that 1993 was out of the question. The clause in Prosts contract didn't extend to 1994 however and instead of taking on his greatest rival, Prost retired with a year on his contract left. For 1994, Senna finally signed with the Williams-Renault team. Given this was the same team that had won the previous two World Championships with vastly superior cars, Senna was a natural and presumptive pre-season title favorite, with second-year driver Damon Hill intended to play the supporting role. Pre-season testing showed the car had speed but now electronic drivers aids were banned and the car proved difficult to drive. The surprise of testing was the Benetton, it was more nimble than the Williams but had less power. The first race of the season was in Brazil, where Senna took Pole. In the race Senna took an early lead but the nimble Benetton was never far behind. After the pit stops Schumacher got lead the race after passing Senna in the pits. Second wasn't enough of a reward for the Brazilian crowd and Senna refused to settle instead opting to push for a win. Senna pushed too hard, spun the car which then stalled, the race over.
The second race was the Pacific Grand Prix at Aida where Senna again placed the car on Pole. However Senna was involved in a collision at the first corner. He was hit from behind by Mika Häkkinen and his race came to a definitive end when a Ferrari driven by Nicola Larini also crashed into his Williams. No points scored from a possible twenty made this his worst start to an F1 season.
At the third race of the season, the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, Senna declared this was where his season would start, fourteen races as opposed to sixteen in which to win the title. Senna again placed the car on what would be his final Pole but the weekend had not been smooth. Roland Ratzenberger lost his life in a horrific crash during qualifying, Senna visited the scene to see for himself what had happened for which he was later chastised for commandeering a marshals car to get to the scene of the accident. Senna and the other drivers all opted to start the Grand Prix and the race set off only for a huge accident at the start line. Instead of the race being stopped a safety car was deployed and the drivers followed it for several laps. On the restart Senna immediately set a quick pace with the third quickest lap of the race, followed by Schumacher. Senna started what was to be his final lap, the car passed the start line towards Tamburello where the car appeared to not attempt to take the corner. Senna scrubbed the speed from around 195mph down to around 135mph before it hit the concrete retaining wall. The car bounced back on to the run off area and came to rest. Course officials arrived at the scene quickly but none approached the car until the medical team arrived suggesting the accident was not going to be one from which Senna would simply walk away from. For a moment Senna's head twitched but and the world thought he might be okay, however the twitch was a sign off a massive brain injury. Senna was removed from the car by Sid Watkins and his medical team and treated by the side of the car before being airlifted to Bologna hospital where Senna was later declared dead.
The suspension of the detached front right wheel had pierced his helmet, causing a fatal injury. Senna was kept alive despite his heart stopping twice but the situation was hopeless. Formula One lost its most controversial and brilliant driver. To this day, the cause of the accident has still not been fully determined.

1994: Williams
Senna was renowned for his qualifying skill, a discipline he mastered like none before to produce a record 65 pole positions from 161 races. This record stood for 12 years after his death, before it was surpassed by Michael Schumacher after taking pole position for the 2006 San Marino Grand Prix, his 236th race.
"Magic" Senna, as he was known to his fans, also won the Monaco Grand Prix six times, a record which stands today and a tribute to his skills which earned him the title "Master of Monaco".
Ayrton described in detail an odd feeling that he got during his qualifying laps. His experience when qualifying for the 1988 Monaco GP for example he described as being in a tunnel or dreamlike state:
Then suddenly something just kicked me. I kind of woke up and realised that I was in a different atmosphere than you normally are. My immediate reaction was to back off, slow down. I drove slowly back to the pits and I didn't want to go out any more that day. It frightened me because I was well beyond my conscious understanding. It happens rarely but I keep these experiences very much alive inside me because it is something that is important for self-preservation.
In that session, lap after lap he broke his own pole position time, until he felt ill at ease, backed off and returned to the pits.
During the 2004 San Marino Grand Prix ten year anniversary remembrance of Ayrton Senna in a series of interviews, Gerhard Berger, Senna's team mate at McLaren from 1990-1992 and a very close friend, expressed a memory of what it was like qualifying with Senna:
This competition could perhaps be attributed to not only Senna's determination and desire to be first (including qualifying), but Senna and Berger's close friendship and horseplay, as the two were always playing practical jokes on each other in attempt to outdo each other.
Berger is quoted as saying "He taught me a lot about our sport, I taught him to laugh".

Qualifying
In F1, wet weather racing is considered to be a great equaliser of cars; that is, the driver makes more of a difference. Speeds must be reduced and car superiority in power or grip is greatly reduced. The rain demands great driver car control, ability and driving finesse. Senna had some of his best performances in such conditions.
One of his tactics was not to change into the rain tyres at the start of the rain but to keep racing using slick tyres. Although it made racing much more difficult Senna often gained several seconds of time ahead of his competitors because most of them were driving into pitstop to change into rain tyres.
The 1984 season was Senna's first in F1. He came into a field of competitors from whose ranks 16 world championships would be reaped. Participating as a rookie in a relatively uncompetitive car, the Toleman TG184, Senna had racked up three race retirements, a 6th and a 7th place from his first 5 races.
He started the first wet race of the season, the Monaco Grand Prix in 13th place. The race was stopped for safety reasons after only 31 laps due to monsoon conditions. At the time the race was stopped, Senna was classified in 2nd place, and catching up to race leader Alain Prost, at 4 seconds per lap. Senna's performance in this race, on a track on which it is notoriously difficult to pass other competitors, should be contrasted with the events of recent races at Monaco in which passing has been the exception rather than the norm, especially in dry conditions.
In 1993, at the European GP at Donington Park, Senna drove for the McLaren team. The MP4/8, although one of the front running cars, was considered inferior to the leading Williams FW15C of Prost and Hill, and the Benetton B193 - which used a factory-supplied Ford engine - driven by Michael Schumacher and Riccardo Patrese.

Wet weather driving
Beyond his exceptional driving skills Senna was one of the sport's most compelling personalities.

Character

Main article: Death of Ayrton Senna The fatal accident at Imola in 1994
To take advantage of the close relationship Honda had with the Brazilian prodigy during his tenure as #1 driver for the McLaren/Honda F1 Team, Ayrton Senna was called in to fine-tune the Honda NSX's suspension setting during its final development stages. The tests were conducted at Suzuka Circuit with chief NSX engineer Shigeru Uehara and his engineering team present to gather Senna's direct input. As a result of his suspension tuning, Senna subsequently found the prototype NSX initially lacked chassis stiffness to the level he was accustomed to, so the final production version was further reinforced to his satisfaction.

Senna and the NSX

Senna's personal sponsor associated with him through his career was Banco Nacional, a now defunct Brazilian Insurance and Banking Co.
In 1992, he endorsed Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II, a video game by Sega.
MV Agusta have a special edition of their F4 model called the F4 1000 senna, which is produced in limited numbers every year in his honour.
Ayrton Senna was a very passionate Sport Club Corinthians Paulista supporter.
Bernie Ecclestone revealed that he still believed Ayrton Senna was and remained the best F1 driver he'd ever seen. Trivia

"Winning is like a drug, I cannot justify in any circumstances coming second or third."
"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose."
"On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit. And you then go for this limit and you touch this limit, and you think, 'Okay, this is the limit'. And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high."
"One particular thing that Formula-1 can provide you, is that you know you're always exposed to danger. Danger of getting hurt, danger of dying. This is part of your life, and you either face it in a professional, in a cool manner, or you just drop it, just leave it and don't do it anymore really. And I happen to like too much what I do to just drop it, I can't drop it."
"Racing, competing, it's in my blood. It's part of me, it's part of my life; I have been doing it all my life and it stands out above everything else."
"There are no small accidents on this circuit." - talking about the Imola circuit before the fatal 1994 race.
"It's going to be a season with lots of accidents, and I'll risk saying that we'll be lucky if something really serious doesn't happen." - pre-season 1994.
"I continuously go further and further learning about my own limitations, my body limitation, psychological limitations. It's a way of life for me."
"Of course there are moments that you wonder how long you should be doing it because there are other aspects which are not nice, of this lifestyle. But I just love winning."
"If you have a target in your life, a real target, doesn't matter if you are very poor or rich people, if you work hard and believe in God, you can get the success, success in the life."
"I know that it is impossible to win always. I just hope that defeat doesn't come this weekend."
"I don't know driving in another way which isn't risky. Each one has to improve himself. Each driver has its limit. My limit is a little bit further than other's."
"If I ever happen to have an accident that eventually costs me my life, I hope it is in one go. I would not like to be in a wheelchair. I would not like to be in a hospital suffering from whatever injury it was. If I'm going to live, I want to live fully. Very intensely, because I am an intense person. It would ruin my life if I had to live partially." (January 1994, 4 months prior to his death) Notable quotations
During his quite long career Senna was involved in several incidents which caused considerable controversy. Senna was vilified in the British media for his involvement in title-deciding collisions in 1989 and 1990. German and Italian newspapers widely condemned his actions in 1990.

Controversies and criticism
Going into the penultimate race, the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix, the Brazilian needed to win again to keep the World Championship open. Senna duly took pole position from the World Championship leader Alain Prost. At the start Prost made a good start and took the lead and for the first half of the race he chipped away to build up a lead of five seconds. Then Senna began to come back at him and by lap 40 they were only a second apart. Prost had the advantage on the straights, Senna was better in the corners. Senna was desperate to get past Prost and at the end of lap 46 Senna made his move at the chicane. Prost was already turning into the corner when Senna drove halfway alongside on the inside. The two interlocked McLarens slid up the chicane escape road. Prost, thinking the World Championship was over, climbed out. To separate the cars the marshals pushed Senna backwards on to the track. They put the car into a dangerous position and so had to push it forwards again. As they did so Senna bump-started the engine. He drove through the chicane and rejoined. The nose of his car was damaged and he had to pit but he rejoined only five seconds behind leader Alessandro Nannini. Senna's chase was furious and merciless. On lap 50 Ayrton sliced past Nannini at the chicane to retake the lead and win the race. But it was Nannini who appeared on the podium as the winner. Senna had been excluded for missing the chicane and creating a serious accident. McLaren appealed the decision but the FIA Court of Appeal not only upheld the decision but fined Senna $100,000 and gave him a suspended six-month ban.
Going into the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix Senna was the Championship leader. After qualifying there was a huge a political battle going on over pole position. McLaren wanted it to be changed so that Senna would be on a clean piece of track but the request was blocked. Senna saw it as collusion between Prost and the officials and it helped to decide him on a frightening deliberate course of action at the start. If his position proved to be a disadvantage Senna was not going to back off in the first corner. Prost made the better start as expected and as they went into the first corner he was half a car length ahead. Senna did not lift off. The two cars collided with enough force to remove Prost's rear wing and spun into the sand trap. Senna was the World Champion. With one race left, Prost was no longer able to get the necessary points to beat Senna. There was lots of controversy after the collision between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. FISA announced plans for a special enquiry into safety after Ferrari threatened to withdraw from F1 unless sanctions were taken against Senna's dangerous driving. Senna, however, only emerged with a warning and a fine. Surprisingly at a press conference following the 1991 Japanese Grand Prix, Senna admitted his part in the first corner accident of the year before claiming it had been done in frustration at the FISA decision not to move pole position to the clean side of the track. Another surprising feature of the 1991 Japanese Grand Prix was that Senna moved over on the last corner of the last lap to let his team mate Gerhard Berger of Austria through to win.

Championship-deciding collisions
Senna took the pole position during the qualifying for the 1985 Monaco Grand Prix, but was accused of deliberately baulking other drivers during the final qualifying session by running more laps than necessary. Niki Lauda and Michele Alboreto were most upset by events; Alboreto going so far as to force Senna up an escape road during the session. Senna pointed out that even on the 13th of his 16 qualifying laps he nearly equalled his pole position time.
At the 1988 Portuguese Grand Prix Prost discovered that winning meant everything to Senna when he was almost forced into the pit wall at Estoril at more than 180 mph. Prost got away slightly faster than Senna at the start but the Brazilian dived into the first corner ahead. Prost responded and went to pass Senna at the end of the first lap. Senna swerved to block Prost, forcing the Frenchman nearly to run into the pitwall. Prost kept his foot down and soon edged Senna into the first corner and started pulling away fast. After the race Prost was not happy with Senna's maneuver. Senna got away with a warning from the FIA.

Complete Formula One Results

Thursday, April 17, 2008


A haplotype (Greek haploos = simple) is a combination of alleles at multiple linked loci that are transmitted together. Haplotype may refer to as few as two loci or to an entire chromosome depending on the number of recombination events that have occurred between a given set of loci. The term haplotype is a portmanteau of "haploid genotype."
In a second meaning, haplotype is a set of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on a single chromatid that are statistically associated. It is thought that these associations, and the identification of a few alleles of a haplotype block, can unambiguously identify all other polymorphic sites in its region. Such information is very valuable for investigating the genetics behind common diseases, and is collected by the International HapMap Project.

Haplotype Resolution

Main article: Genealogical DNA testHaplotype UEP results (SNP results)
The other possible part of the genetic results is the Y-STR haplotype, the set of results from the Y-STR markers tested.
Unlike the UEPs, the Y-STRs mutate much more easily, which gives them much more resolution to distinguish recent genealogy. But it also means that, rather than the population of descendents of a genetic event all sharing the same result, the Y-STR haplotypes are likely to have spread apart, to form a cluster of more or less similar results. Typically, this cluster will have a definite most probable center, the modal haplotype (presumably close to the haplotype of the original founding event), and also a haplotype diversity - the degree to which it has become spread out. The further in the past the defining event occurred, and the more that subsequent population growth occurred early, the greater the haplotype diversity for a particular number of descendents will be. On the other hand, if the haplotype diversity is smaller for a particular number of descendents, this may indicate a more recent common ancestor, or that a population expansion has occurred more recently.
It is important to note that, unlike for UEPs, there is no guarantee that two individuals with a similar Y-STR haplotype will necessarily share a similar ancestry. There is no uniqueness about Y-STR events. Instead, the clusters of Y-STR haplotype results inheriting from different events and different histories all tend to overlap.
Thus, although sometimes a Y-STR haplotype may be directly indicative of a particular Y-DNA haplogoup, it is in most cases a long time since the haplogoups' defining events, so typically the cluster of Y-STR haplotype results associated with descendents of that event has become rather broad, and will tend to significantly overlap the (similarly broad) clusters of Y-STR haplotypes associated with other haplogroups, making it impossible to predict with absolute certainty to which Y-DNA haplogroup a Y-STR haplotype would point. All that can be done from the Y-STRs, if the UEPs are not actually tested, is to predict probabilities for haplogroup ancestry (as this online program does), but not certainties.
A similar scenario exists for surnames. A cluster of similar Y-STR haplotypes may indicate a shared common ancestor, with an identifiable modal haplotype, but only if the cluster is sufficiently distinct from what may have arisen by chance from different individuals historically having adopted the same name independently. This may require the typing of quite an extensive haplotype to establish, which has fuelled DNA testing companies to offer ever-larger sets of markers - 24 then 37 then 67, and perhaps soon even more.
Plausibly establishing relatedness between different surnames data-mined from a database is significantly harder, because now it must be established not that a randomly-selected member of the population is unlikely to have such a close match by accident, but rather that the very nearest member of the population in question, chosen purposely from the population for that very reason, would even under those circumstances be unlikely to match by accident. This is for the foreseeable future likely to be impossible, except in special cases where there is further information to drastically limit the size of that population of candidates under consideration.

See also
The following software is available for estimating hapltoypes
The following software is available for testing haplotypes for disease associations

snphapEM based software for estimating haplotype frequencies from unphased genotypes.
Haploviewhaplotype based association analysis.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

John the Chaplain
John (died 1147) was an early 12th century tironensian cleric. He was the chaplain and close confident of King David I of Scotland, before becoming bishop of Glasgow and founder of Glasgow Cathedral. He was one of the most significant religious reformers in the history of Scotland. His later nickname Achaius, a latinization of Eochaid would indicate that he was a native Scot, but the name is probably not authentic. He was in fact a Tironensian monk, of probable French origin, probably being taken to Scotland from David's lands in the Cotentin Peninsula.
While David was in the custody of King Henry I of England, he spent some time in northern France. David came to cultivate strong relations with the new Tironensian monastic order, and in 1113 established a Tironensian monastery at Selkirk Abbey. John may have either been the cause of this relationship, or perhaps its product. John was serving as David's chaplain until about 1116, and was appointed bishop of Glasgow sometime thereafter. John was involved in a dispute with the archbishop of York, a dipsute general to the David's kingdom. After the accession of Thurstan to the archbishopric of York, John received several letters from Pope Callixtus II ordering him to render homage to this archbishop as his metropolitan. In 1122 Thurstan suspended John, an action which was obviously serious enough for John to travel to Rome to appeal. Afterwards, John travelled on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but in 1123 was ordered by the pope to return to his diocese. John travelled to Rome again in 1125 in order to secure a pallium, which would have elevated St Andrews to an archbishopric. Thurstan soon arrived in Rome himself. This was probably enough to prevent Pope Honorius II granting the pallium, and the year 1127 was set to continue discussion about the archbishop's rights, effectively stalling Thurstan's claims.
Nevertheless, York's claims continued to be pressed. In 1134, there was renewed papal pressure from Pope Innocent II to make submission. Perhaps it was for this reason that John gave his allegiance to the Antipope Anacletus II. The political situation had changed by 1135, and John's move had put him out of favour. In either 1136 or 1137 John abandoned his see to become a monk at Tiron. However, in 1138, the papal legate Alberic, bishop of Ostia recalled him to his see. John died in 1147, and was buried in Jedburgh Abbey. He was succeeded by another Tironensian, Herbert, Abbot of Selkirk/Kelso.
John's legacy was vast. His impact as a confident of David was crucial to the growth of reformed monastic orders in the kingdom of Scotland. Moreover, John himself presided over the monastic foundations of Selkirk (later Kelso Abbey, Kelso), Jedburgh and Lesmahagow. John's episcopate saw the beginnings of Glasgow cathedral.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Parochial schools
A parochial school (also known as a faith school or a sect school) is a type of school which engages in religious education in addition to conventional education. Parochial schools are typically grammar schools or high schools run by churches or parishes.

Parochial schools United States

Charter school
Christian school
Catholic school
Jewish day school
Madrasah

Monday, April 14, 2008

Climbing Mount Improbable
Climbing Mount Improbable is a 1996 popular science book by Richard Dawkins. The book is about probability and how it applies to the theory of evolution, and specifically is designed to debunk claims by creationists about the probability of naturalistic mechanisms like natural selection producing complex organisms.
The main metaphorical treatment is of a geographical landscape, upon which evolution can only ascend in a gradual way, not being able to climb cliffs. In the book he gives various ideas about a seemingly complex mechanism coming about from many different gradual steps, that were previously unseen.
The book grew out of the annual Royal Institution Christmas Lectures which Dawkins delivered in 1991. It is illustrated by Dawkins' wife, Lalla Ward.
The book is divided into ten chapters as follows:

Facing Mount Rushmore
Silken Fetters
The Message From the Mountain
Getting Off the Ground
The Forty-fold Path to Enlightenment
The Museum of All Shells
Kaleidoscopic Embryos
Pollen Grains and Magic Bullets
The Robot Repeater
"A Garden Inclosed"

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Robert Volkmann
Friedrich Robert Volkmann (April 6, 1815October 30, 1883) was a German composer.
He was born in Lommatzsch, Saxony, Germany. His father was music director for a church, so the father trained the son in music to prepare him as a successor. Thus Volkmann learned to play the organ and the piano with his father, as well as violin and cello, and by age 12, he was playing the cello part in String Quartets by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. In 1832, Robert Volkmann entered the Freiberg Gymnasium and studied music with Anacker, going on to Leipzig in 1836 to study with C.F. Becker. There, in Leipzig, Volkmann met Robert Schumann, who encouraged Volkmann. They met again several times after that.
When he finished his studies, he began working as voice teacher at a music school in Prague. He didn't stay there long, and in 1841, he moved to Budapest, where he was employed as a piano teacher and a reporter for the Allgemeine Wiener Musik-Zeitung. He pretty much composed in obscurity until 1852, when his Piano Trio in B-flat minor caught the ears of Franz Liszt and Hans von Bülow, who proceeded to play it several times all over Europe. In 1854, Volkmann moved to Vienna, only to return to Budapest in 1858.
Thanks to the publisher Gustav Heckenast, who in 1857 bought the rights to publish all Volkmann's works in exchange for regular income regardless of sales, Volkmann was able to fully dedicate himself to composition, until Heckenast closed down his Budapest publishing house in the early 1870s.
While visiting Vienna in 1864, Volkmann became acquainted with Johannes Brahms, and they became close friends. In letters they addressed each other as "lieber Freund" ("dear friend").
In the 1870s Volkmann began winding down on his life, composing very little. From 1875 until his death, Volkmann was professor of harmony and counterpoint at the National Academy of Music in Budapest. (Franz Liszt was the director there). Volkmann died on October 30, 1883.
Most of Volkmann's compositions are either for solo piano or ensembles including piano. It was his Piano Trio in B flat minor that first brought him renown. During his 4-year stay in Vienna, Volkmann composed his Variations on a Theme of Handel, String Quartets No. 3 and No. 4 in E minor, and the Cello Concerto in A minor.
Almost all of Volkmann's orchestral works date to the time of his association with Heckenast. (They are few enough to fit on two CDs.). These include an Overture for William Shakespeare's play "Richard III", an Overture in C major, the Symphony No. 1 in D minor (which was a major success when premiered in Moscow) and the Symphony No. 2 in B flat major, dedicated to the Russian Musical Society.
Volkmann believed that a composer should be satisfied with creating in the listeners' minds the desired mood and impression by purely musical means; if the contours of the action and the plot are recognized by the listener, this should be considered a happy coincidence.
When Volkmann's Symphony No. 1 was played on a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio Two request show, in early 1998, announcer Shelagh Rogers remarked that "It sounds almost like a forgotten work by Brahms... almost."
Unlike the serious No. 1, the Symphony No. 2 is rather cheerful. Robert Volkmann's grandson, Hans Volkmann, remarks: "After Haydn, naïve cheerfulness was only extremely rarely chosen as the basic mood of an entire Symphony."

Saturday, April 12, 2008


Ashikaga Yoshinori (Jp. 足利 義教) (July 12, 1394July 12, 1441) was the 6th shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1429 to 1441 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshinori was the son of the third shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.
After the death of the fifth shogun Ashikaga Yoshikazu in 1425, the fourth shogun Ashikaga Yoshimochi would not decide a successor. After Yoshimochi's death in 1428, Yoshinori became Seii Taishogun the year after by pulling lots in front of Iwashimizu Shrine in Kyoto to solve the long undecided matter of succession.
Yoshinori strengthened the power of the shogunate after defeating Ashikaga Mochiuji in the Eikyo Rebellion of 1438. Like most shoguns, he practiced the shudo tradition, taking Akamatsu Sadamura as his wakashu. A number of Ashikaga shoguns chose their beloveds from the Akamatsu family.
Yoshinori was assassinated in 1441, on his 47th birthday by Akamatsu Mitsusuke in the Kakitsu Rebellion. This is thought to have been precipitated by his attempt to take Mitsusuke's lands in order to grant them to his beloved Sadamura. ("The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality by Tsuneo Watanabe and Jun'ichi Iwata)
He was succeeded by his son, the seventh shogun Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, in the next year but the power of the shogunate fell into decline.

Ashikaga Yoshinori Eras of Yoshinori's bakufu

Friday, April 11, 2008


Hilton or Hylton may refer to:

Hilton People with the surname Hilton

Hilton Armstrong (born 1984), American Basketball Player People with the given name Hilton

Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management — an academic college at the University of Houston
Hilton College in Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Hilton Central High School in Hilton, New York
Hilton Tri in Hilton, Endeavour Hills
C.D. Hylton High School in Woodbridge, Virginia Schools

Hilton, Aberdeen (Scotland)
Hilton, Berwickshire (Scotland)
Hilton, Cambridgeshire (England)
Hilton, Derbyshire (England)
Hilton, Dorset (England)
Hilton, County Durham (England)
Hilton, Huntingdonshire (England)
Hilton, Inverness-shire (Scotland)
Hilton, North Yorkshire (England)
Hilton, Ross-shire (Scotland)
Hilton, Shropshire (England)
Hilton, Staffordshire (England)
Hilton, Westmorland (England)
South Hylton in Sunderland (England)
Hylton Castle in Hylton district of Sunderland (England) Places in the UK

Hilton, New York, a village
Hilton Head, South Carolina, an island Places in the US

Hilton, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide
Hilton, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth Hilton Places in Australia

Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal, a town next to Pietermaritzburg
Hilton, Bloemfontein, a suburb of Bloemfontein

Thursday, April 10, 2008


The City of Dallas (pronounced [ˈdæl.əs] or [ˈdæl.ʊs]) is the second-largest (according to 2000 census) city in the state of Texas and the ninth-largest city in the United States. The city covers 385 square miles (997 km²) and is the county seat of Dallas County.

History
Dallas is the county seat of Dallas County. Portions of the city extend into neighboring Collin, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 385 square miles (997.1 km²)—342.5 square miles (887.1 km²) of it is land and 42.5 square miles (110.1 km²) of it (11.03%) is water. Dallas makes up one-fifth of the much larger urbanized area known as the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex—about a quarter of all Texans live in the Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington metropolitan area.

Geography

Main article: Geology of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex Topography

Main article: Climate of Dallas, TexasDallas Climate

Cityscape
Dallas's skyline contains several buildings over 700 feet (210 m) in height and the city is considered the fifteenth-tallest city on earth while Houston, its intra-state rival is ranked 7th in the world.
Tallest structures in Dallas
See also: List of tallest buildings and structures in Dallas

Bank of America Plaza 921 feet (281 m)
Renaissance Tower 886 feet (270 m)
Comerica Bank Tower 787 feet (240 m)
JPMorgan Chase Tower 738 feet (225 m)
Fountain Place 720 feet (219 m)
Bank of America Plaza 921 feet (281 m)
Comerica Bank Tower 787 feet (240 m)
JPMorgan Chase Tower 738 feet (225 m)
Fountain Place 720 feet (219 m)
Renaissance Tower 710 feet (216 m) Architecture
The City of Dallas has many communities and neighborhoods. Major areas in the city include:
Central Dallas is anchored by Downtown, the center of the city and the epicenter of urban revival, coupled with Oak Lawn and Uptown Dallas, new urbanist areas anchored by dense retail, restaurants, and nightlife. Downtown Dallas has a variety of neighborhoods, including the West End Historic District, the Arts District, the Main Street District, Farmers Market District, the City Center business district, the Convention Center District, the Reunion District and Victory Park. North of downtown is Oak Lawn, a densely-populated area that contains parks along Turtle Creek and the popular Uptown area with LoMac, Cityplace and the West Village.
The east side of Dallas contains the community of east Dallas, home to Deep Ellum, a trendy arts area close to downtown, homey Lakewood, the historic Vickery Place, Bryan Place, and historically and architecturally significant homes on Swiss Avenue. Above the Park Cities is north Dallas, home to mansions as palatial as Versailles in Preston Hollow, strong middle and upper-class communities north into Bent Tree and Far North Dallas, and high-powered shopping at Galleria Dallas, NorthPark Center, and Preston Center. East of north Dallas and north of east Dallas is Lake Highlands, one of the most unified middle-class areas in the city, with the strongest definition—it is in the northeastern part of the city above White Rock Lake and east Dallas. Further east, above (north and east of) the Trinity River, is Pleasant Grove—once an independent city, it is a predominantly black collection of neighborhoods stretching to Seagoville to the southeast.
The city is further surrounded by many suburbs and encloses the following enclaves: Cockrell Hill, Highland Park, and University Park.

See also: List of neighborhoods in Dallas, Texas

Neighborhoods

Main article: Culture of Dallas, Texas Culture
Present-day Dallas as a singular entity can be seen as fairly moderate, exceptionally so relative to its position in what is seen as an extremely conservative area (The nearby suburb of Plano was ranked as the 5th most conservative city in America by The Bay Area Center for Voting Research). In 2004, only 25% of votes cast in the City of Dallas were cast for conservative candidates, while they narrowly won Dallas County as a whole.
In 2006, Republican Tom Leppert defeated Ed Oakley by a margin of 58% to 42% to become the Mayor of Dallas, though the city's elections are non-partisan.

Politics
Dallas is renowned for barbecue, authentic Mexican, and Tex-Mex cuisine. Famous products of the Dallas culinary scene include the frozen margarita and the restaurants La Calle Doce, Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse, Enchilada's, Mi Cocina, Bone Daddy's Barbecue, and The Mansion on Turtle Creek.

Cuisine
The Arts District in downtown is home to several arts venues, both existing and proposed. Notable venues in the district include the Dallas Museum of Art, the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, The Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art, the Nasher Sculpture Center,The Dallas Contemporary, The Dallas Children's Theatre. Venues under construction or planned include the Winspear Opera House and the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts.

Arts
See also: U.S. cities with teams from four major sports
Dallas is home to the Dallas Desperados (Arena Football League), Dallas Mavericks (National Basketball Association), and Dallas Stars (National Hockey League). All three teams play at the American Airlines Center. The Major League Soccer team FC Dallas, formerly the Dallas Burn, used to play in the Cotton Bowl but moved to Pizza Hut Park in Frisco upon the stadium's opening in 2005.

Sports
The City of Dallas maintains and operates 406 parks on 21,000 acres (85 km²) of parkland. Its flagship park is the 260 acre (1.05 km²) Fair Park which was originally developed to host the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936. The city is also home to Texas's first and largest zoo at 95 acres (0.38 km²) — the Dallas Zoo, which opened in 1888.
To the west of Dallas in Arlington is Six Flags Over Texas. Hurricane Harbor, a large water park, is also in Arlington.

Recreation
Dallas has numerous local newspapers, magazines, television stations and radio stations that serve the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex as a whole, which is the 5th-largest media market in the United States.
See also: Newspapers of Dallas, Texas, List of radio stations in Texas, List of television stations in Texas#Dallas/Fort Worth, and List of movies set in Dallas, Texas

Media
There is a large Protestant Christian influence in the Dallas community as the city is deep within the Bible BeltMethodist and Baptist churches are prominent in many neighborhoods and anchor the city's two major private universities. The Cathedral of Hope, an LGBT Protestant church, is the largest congregation of its kind in the world. as well as in Irving and other suburbs.

Religion
The most notable event held in Dallas is the State Fair of Texas which has been held annually at Fair Park since 1886. The fair is a massive event for the state of Texas and brings an estimated US$350 million to the city's economy annually. The Red River Shootout (UT-OU) game at the Cotton Bowl and other Cotton Bowl games also bring significant crowds to the city.
Other festivals in the area include Cinco de Mayo festivities hosted by the city's large Mexican population, Saint Patrick's Day parades in Irish communities especially along east Dallas's Lower Greenville Avenue, Juneteenth festivities, the Greek Food Festival of Dallas, and an annual Halloween parade on Cedar Springs Road.

Events
In its beginnings, Dallas relied on farming, neighboring Fort Worth's cattle market, and its prime location on trade routes with Indians to sustain itself. Dallas's real key to growth came in 1873 though with the building of multiple rail lines through the city. As Dallas grew and technology developed, cotton became its boon—by 1900 Dallas was the largest inland cotton market on Earth and led the world in cotton gin machinery manufacturing. By the early 1900s, Dallas was a hub for economic activity all over the Southwestern United States and was selected in 1914 as the seat of the Eleventh Federal Reserve District; by 1925, Texas churned out more than ⅓ of the nation's cotton crop, and 31% of Texas cotton was produced within a 100 mile (161 km) radius of Dallas. In the 1930s, oil was discovered east of Dallas near Kilgore, Texas, and Dallas's proximity to the discovery put it at the center of the nation's oil market. Oil discoveries in the Permian Basin, the Panhandle, the Gulf Coast, and Oklahoma in the following years further solidified Dallas's position as the hub of the market as it was roughly the geographic center of all 5 regions. When combined with the 8 billionaires who live in Dallas's neighboring city of Fort Worth, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is one of the greatest concentrations of billionaires in the world.
See also: List of companies in Dallas, Texas
See also: List of foreign consulates in Dallas
See also: List of shopping malls in Dallas, Texas

Economy

Main article: Law and government of Dallas, Texas Law and government
Policing in Dallas is provided predominantly by the Dallas Police Department, which has 2,977 officers. The central police station is located in the Cedars, a south Dallas neighborhood near downtown.
According to the FBI, a city to city comparison of crime rates is not meaningful, because recording practices vary from city to city, citizens report different percentages of crimes from one city to the next, and the actual number of people physically present in a city is unknown. [9] Also, most of the violent crime in a city is concentrated in a few bad neighborhoods. With that in mind, however, Dallas's violent crime rate (12.06) is lower than such major cities as St Louis (24.81 per thousand), Detroit (24.22), Baltimore (16.96), Philadelphia (15.62), Atlanta (15.54), Cleveland (15.47), Miami (15.09), Washington DC (14.48), Kansas City (14.44) and Boston (13.39). Dallas's violent crime rate trails such cities as Houston (11.69), Los Angeles (7.87) and New York City (6.38). [10]

Fire protection

Main article: Demographics of Dallas, Texas Demographics

Main article: Education in Dallas, Texas Education
Further information: List of colleges and universities in Dallas, Texas
Dallas is a major center of education for much of the South Central United States. The city itself contains several universities, colleges, trade schools, and educational institutes. Several major Universities also lie in enclaves, satellite cities, and suburbs of Dallas.
The University of Texas at Dallas, part of the public UT system, is located in the city of Richardson, adjacent to Dallas in an area known as the Telecom Corridor. UT Dallas, or UTD as longtime residents refer to it, is renowned for its work in combining the arts and technology, as well as for its programs in engineering, computer science, economics, international political economy, neuroscience, speech and hearing, pre-health, pre-law and management. UT Dallas has many collaborative research relationships with UT Southwestern (see below). UT Dallas is home to approximately 15,000 students.
Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a private, coeducational university in University Park, an enclave of Dallas. It was founded in 1911 by the Southern Methodist Church and now enrolls 6,500 undergraduates, 1,200 professional students in the law and theology departments, and 3,500 postgraduates.
The University of Dallas in the adjacent suburb of Irving, Texas is an enclave of traditional Roman Catholicism in the Protestant landscape of Dallas. St. Albert the Great Dominican Priory and Holy Trinity Seminary are located on campus. The Cistercian Monastary and Cistercian Preparatory School are located just to the southeast, and The Highlands School, a PK-12 Legionary school, is connected to the east by jogging trails. The Cistercian Monastery continues to be notable in scholastic developments in theology.
Also in the nearby suburbs and neighboring cities are the University of North Texas in Denton and the University of Texas at Arlington in Arlington.

Dallas Colleges and universities

Primary and secondary schools
The city of Dallas is mostly within the Dallas Independent School District, the twelfth-largest school district in the United States.

Public schools
There are also private schools in Dallas, most notably St. Mark's School of Texas, Ursuline Academy of Dallas, Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas, Episcopal School of Dallas, Bishop Dunne Catholic School, Bishop Lynch High School, First Baptist Academy, and The Hockaday School . Many Dallas residents also attend Cistercian Preparatory School and The Highlands School in adjacent Irving and Greenhill School in adjacent Addison. Ursuline Academy of Dallas, founded by a group of Ursuline nuns in 1874, is credited with being the oldest school in the city.

Private schools
The city is served by the Dallas Public Library system. The system was originally created by the Dallas Federation of Women's Clubs with efforts spearheaded by then-president Mrs. Henry (May Dickson) Exall. Her work raising money led to a grant from philanthropist and steel baron Andrew Carnegie, which enabled the construction of the first branch in 1901.


Libraries

Infrastructure
The city of Dallas has many hospitals within its bounds and a number of medical research facilities. One major research center is UT Southwestern Medical Center in the Stemmons Corridor, along with its affiliate medical school, UT Southwestern Medical School. The system includes Parkland Memorial Hospital and Children's Medical Center Dallas.
The city also has a VA hospital in south Dallas, the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dallas is the home of a Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (CMOP), part of an initiative by the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide mail order prescriptions to veterans using computerization at strategic locations throughout the United States.
Other hospitals include Baylor University Medical Center in east Dallas, Methodist Dallas Medical Center in Oak Cliff, Methodist Charlton Medical Center near Duncanville, Medical City Dallas Hospital and Presbyterian Hospital in north Dallas, and the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Oak Lawn.

Health systems

Main article: Transportation in Dallas, Texas Utilities