Friday, November 30, 2007

Organizational performance
Organizational performance comprises the actual output or results of an organization as measured against its intended outputs (or goals and objectives).
Specialists in many fields are concerned with organizational performance including strategic planners, operations, finance, legal, and organizational development.
In recent years, many organizations have attempted to manage organizational performance using the balanced scorecard methodology where performance is tracked and measured in multiple dimensions such as:
- financial performance (e.g. shareholder return) - customer service - social responsibility (e.g. corporate citizenship, community outreach) - employee stewardship

Thursday, November 29, 2007


Gainesville is the largest city and county seat of Alachua County, Florida.

History
Gainesville is located at 29°39'55" North, 82°20'10" West (29.665245, -82.336097),which is roughly the same latitude as Houston, Texas. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 49.1 square miles (127 km²), of which 48.2 square miles (125 km²) is land and 0.9 square miles (2 km²) is water. The total area is 1.87% water.
Gainesville is one of the southernmost cities in the United States where deciduous trees predominate, and has been recognized every year since 1982 as a "Tree City, USA". There are deciduous trees farther south, but they are not as abundant as they are from Alachua County northward. The city is also an important way station for automobile travelers, as it is located nearly midway between Atlanta and Miami, five hours from Miami, and five from Atlanta.
The North Florida area in which Gainesville is located is known to natives as the "end of the South." This is most likely due to the fact that south of Alachua County or Marion County, starting somewhere north of Orlando, there are fewer native Floridians (and effectively native Southerners) and the sprawling development that defines South and Central Florida begins. However, it should be noted that due to large levels of migration, much of it related to the University of Florida, the western sector of the city holds more in common culturally and visually with Central and Southern Florida, whereas the eastern sector of the city holds more in common culturally and visually with "the South".

Climate
The destruction of the city's landmark Victorian courthouse in the 1960s, which some considered unnecessary, brought the idea of historic preservation to the attention of the community. The bland county building which replaced the grand courthouse became known to some locals as the "air conditioner." Additional destruction of other historic buildings in the downtown followed as the city tried to modernize, but succeeded in diminishing the city's historic charm. After many years of little progress, revitalization of the city's core has picked up, and many parking lots and underutilized buildings are being replaced with infill development and near-campus housing which blend in with existing historic structures. There is talk of rebuilding a replica of the old courthouse on a parking lot one block from the original location.
Helping in this effort are the number of areas and buildings which have been added to the National Register of Historic Places. Dozens of examples of restored Victorian and Queen Anne style residences constructed in the city's agricultural heyday of the 1880s and 1890s can be found in the following districts:
Historic structures on the Register in and around downtown are:
There are three listings for places on the outskirts of Gainesville:

Northeast Gainesville Residential District
Southeast Gainesville Residential District
Pleasant Street Historic District
Bailey Plantation House (1854)
Matheson Center Home (1867)
Thomas Hotel (1928)
The Old Post Office (now the Hippodrome State Theatre) (1913)
Masonic Temple (1913)
Seagle Building (1937), thirteen stories, downtown's only "skyscraper."
Baird Hardware Company Warehouse (1910)
Cox Furniture Store (1887)
Cox Furniture Warehouse (c. 1890)
Epworth Hall (1884)
Old Gainesville Depot (1850s)
Mary Phifer McKenzie House (1895)
Star Garage (1903)
Liberty Hill Schoolhouse (????)
Boulware Springs Water Works (1895)
Kanapaha (c. 1854-56) Cityscape
As of the census

Demographics
Gainesville has a fairly well-known punk and ska music scene and has spawned a number of bands including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Less Than Jake, The Usuals, Hot Water Music (hence The Draft), Against Me!, Sister Hazel, and For Squirrels. It is also the location of the independent label No Idea Records and the annual underground rock festival known as The Fest, which is co-operated by No Idea. The hip hop scene is just as well known with artists such as Ciara, Lil Boosie, Young Jeezy, Snoop Dogg, and in her earlier years Lil Mama, performing in the area.
Gainesville's reputation as an independent music mecca can be traced back to October 1984 when a local music video station was brought on the air. The station was called TV-69, broadcast on UHF 69 and was owned by Cozzin Communications. The channel drew a lot of local media attention thanks in part to its promotion by famous comedian Bill Cosby, who was part-owner of that station when it started. TV-69 featured many videos by punk and indy-label bands and even had several locally produced videos ("Clone Love" by a local parody band, and a Dinosaur Jr song).
Cultural facilities include the Florida Museum of Natural History, Harn Museum of Art, the Hippodrome State Theatre, Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, and The Civic Media Center. Smaller theaters include the Acrosstown Repertory Theatre (ART) and the Gainesville Community Playhouse (GCP). GCP is the oldest community theatre group in Florida, and last year christened a new theatre building.
Numerous guides such as the 2004 book Cities Ranked and Rated: More than 400 Metropolitan Areas Evaluated in the U.S. and Canada have mentioned Gainesville's low cost of living. The restaurants near the University of Florida also tend to be inexpensive. The property taxes are high to offset the cost of the university, as the university's land is tax-exempt. However, the median home cost remains slightly below the national average, and Gainesville residents, like all Floridians, do not pay state income taxes.
This city's job market scored only 6 points out of a possible 100 in the Cities Ranked and Rated guide, as the downside to the low cost of living is an extremely weak local job market that is oversupplied with college-educated residents. The University of Florida, the Shands Healthcare system (a private-public-university partnership), and the city government are the only major employers for the city. The median income in Gainesville is slightly below the U.S. average.
The east side of Gainesville houses the majority of the African-American community within the city, while the west side consists of the mainly white student and resident population. There are also large-scale planned communities on the far west side, most notably Haile Plantation, which was built on the site of a former plantation.
Gainesville is informally called "Hogtown" by many current and former residents, after Hogtown Creek, which runs through the city and was the original name of a town nearby, which was eventually incorporated into the growing city. It was the center of the Gainesville Eight case in the 1970s, and is known to some as the Berkeley of the South. This nickname was probably afforded to Gainesville because of the presence of a relatively prestigious university, and the liberal tendencies of its voting base. All of the counties surrounding Alachua County vote heavily Republican, while Gainesville votes strongly Democratic. In the 2000 election there was a 15% gap in votes in Alachua county between Gore and Bush, while Nader received under 4%. This liberal lean is attributed to the presence of the University in tandem with the presence of a large black community that consistently votes Democratic.
The city is characterized by its medium size, semi-rural location (about 90 minutes driving time away from Jacksonville or Orlando), and large public university. Suburban sprawl has, as of late, become a concern for the city commissioners. However, the "New Urbanization" plan to gentrify the area between historic Downtown and the University of Florida may slow the growth of suburban sectors and spark a migration toward upper-level apartments in the inner city. The area immediately north of the University of Florida is also seeing active redevelopment.
The National Coalition for the Homeless cited Gainesville in 2004 as the 5th meanest city for their criminalization of homelessness.

Culture
All of the Gainesville urban area is served by the School Board of Alachua County, which has some 75 different institutions in the county, most of which are in the Gainesville area. Gainesville is also home to the University of Florida and Santa Fe Community College. The University of Florida is a major financial boost to the community, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional revenues are created by the athletic events that occur at UF, including SEC football games.
Other educational institutions include Saint Leo University, City College/Gainesville Campus, P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School, Gainesville High School, Eastside High School, Buchholz High School, Santa Fe High School and Saint Francis Catholic High School.
The Alachua County Library District provides public library service to a county-wide population of approximately 190,655. The Library District has reciprocal borrowing agreements with the surrounding counties of Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, Lafayette, Levy, Marion, Putnam and Union. These agreements are designed to facilitate access to the most conveniently located library facility regardless of an individual's county of residence.

Education
Gainesville has an extensive road system, which is served by Interstate 75, and several Florida State Routes, including State routes 20, 24, and 26, among others. Gainesville is also served by US 441 and nearby US 301, which gives a direct route to Jacksonville, Ocala, and Orlando. The primary intersection in the city is the intersection of 13th Street (US 441), the main north-south route, and University Avenue (SR 26) the main east-west route. This intersection is at the northeast corner of the University of Florida campus and thirteen blocks west of the center of downtown, where Main Street intersects University Avenue.
The city's streets are set up on a grid system with four quadrants (NW, NE, SW and SE). All streets are numbered, except for a few major thoroughfares which are often named for the towns to which they lead (such as Waldo Road (SR 24), Hawthorne Road (SR 20), Williston Road (SR 121), Archer Road (also SR 24) and Newberry Road (SR 26). Residents sometimes use the acronym APRiL to remember the orientation of the streets on the grid: all streets with the suffix Avenue, Place, Road, or Lane run east-west. Any other suffix denotes a street that runs north-south.
Daily Amtrak service to and from Waldo, 12 miles (19 km) NE of the city, has been replaced with Amtrak shuttle buses which re-connect with the rail system further south. Full Amtrak service is available at Palatka, 32 miles (51 km) to the east.
In addition to its extensive road network, Gainesville is also served by Gainesville Regional Transit System, or RTS, which is the fourth largest mass transit system in the state. The area is also served by Gainesville Regional Airport in the northeast part of the city, with daily service to Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, and Charlotte.

Transportation
Gainesville is served by the following Newspapers:

The Gainesville Sun
The Independent Florida Alligator Gainesville, Florida Media

Florida Museum of Natural History (including the Butterfly Rainforest exhibit)
Harn Museum of Art
Hippodrome State Theatre
Kanapaha Botanical Gardens
University of Florida
The Devil's Millhopper
Payne's Prairie
Civic Media Center
San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park
Lake Alice
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field
Stephen C. O'Connell Center
Newnan's Lake
Ligature Design Symposium
Gainesville Raceway Points of interest
This section has been tagged since July 2007.
Celebrities that live or have lived in Gainesville include:

Notable residents

Individuals

Aslyn, singer/songwriter Musicians

Lisa Nicole Carson, actress Actors/Performers
Chris Leak, NFL Draft pick

Corey Brewer, NBA Draft pick
Lyubov Denisova, Marathon runner
Doug Dickey, Hall of Fame Football Coach
Ric Flair, professional wrestling personality
Taurean Green, NBA Draft pick
Al Horford, NBA Draft pick
Darrell Jackson, football player
Marty Liquori, Olympic track & field athlete and TV announcer
Roger Maris, baseball player (first to break Babe Ruth's home run record)
Andrew Miller, baseball player
Heather Mitts, soccer player
Rodney Mullen, professional skateboarder
Joakim Noah, NBA Draft pick
Clinton Portis, football player
Chris Richard, NBA Draft pick
Emmitt Smith, professional football player
Steve Spurrier, football player and coach
Abby Wambach, soccer player
Bernard Williams, sprinter and Olympic gold medalist
Jack Youngblood, professional football player & NFL Hall of Famer Athletes

Kiki Carter, environmental activist, organizer, musician, writer
Michael Connelly, multiple-bestselling thriller/mystery writer
Harry Crews, Southern Gothic author
Nancy Yi Fan, children's book author
Joe Haldeman, science fiction author
Tom Meek, newspaper columnist and writer Other Notable Individuals
Other celebrity ties to Gainesville include Faye Dunaway, who went to the University of Florida, Malcolm Gets, who grew up there, graduated from the university, and wrote and performed at the Community Playhouse and the Hippodrome, and Bob Vila, who graduated from the College of Journalism and Communications. Renee Richards lived in Gainesville for a time.

Against Me!
Aleka's Attic
As Friends Rust
The Draft
Holopaw
Hot Water Music
Less than Jake
Mudcrutch
Rehasher
Sister Hazel

Wednesday, November 28, 2007


Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993), was an Oscar-nominated American actress. The American Film Institute named Gish 17th among the greatest female stars of all time.

Lillian Gish Early life
Their first role was in Griffith's short film An Unseen Enemy. Lillian went on to star in many of Griffith's most acclaimed films, among these The Birth of a Nation (as Elsie), Intolerance, Broken Blossoms, Way Down East, and Orphans of the Storm.
Having appeared in over 25 short films and features in her first two years as a movie actress, Lillian became a major star, becoming known as "The First Lady of the Silent Screen" and appearing in lavish productions, frequently of literary works such as The Scarlet Letter (1926). MGM released her from her contract in 1928 after the failure of The Wind, now recognized by many as among her finest performances and one of the most distinguished works of the late silent period.
She directed one film, Remodeling Her Husband (1920), when D.W. Griffith took his unit on location -- he told Gish that he thought the crew would work harder for a girl. Gish apparently preferred to remain in front of the camera rather than behind it, since she never directed again. She told reporters at the time that directing was a man's job.
With her debut in talkies only moderately successful, she acted on the stage for the most part in the 1930s and early 1940s, appearing with distinction in roles as varied as Ophelia in Guthrie McClintic's landmark 1936 production of Hamlet (with John Gielgud and Judith Anderson) and Marguerite in a limited run of La Dame aux Camélias. Of the former, she said, with pride, "I played a lewd Ophelia!," contrasting the role with the virginal "ga-ga babies" she had tired of portraying on screen.
Returning to movies, Gish was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1946 for Duel in the Sun. She appeared in films from time to time for the rest of her life, notably in Night of the Hunter (1955) and A Wedding (1978). She was considered for various roles in Gone with the Wind ranging from Ellen O'Hara, Scarlett's mother to the red-headed prostitute Belle Watling.
Gish made numerous television appearances from the early 1950s into the late 1980s. Her most acclaimed television work was starring in the original production of The Trip to Bountiful in 1953. She appeared as Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna in the short-lived 1965 Broadway musical Anya.
In addition to her latter-day acting appearances, Gish became one of the leading advocates on the lost art of the silent film, often giving speeches and touring to screenings of classic works. In 1975 she hosted The Silent Years, a PBS film program of silent films.
Gish received a special Academy Award in 1971 "for superlative artistry and for distinguished contribution to the progress of motion pictures." In 1984 she received an American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, only the second female recipient (Bette Davis was first in 1977) and only recipient who was a major figure in the silent era. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1720 Vine Street.
Her last film role was in The Whales of August in 1987 at the age of 93, with Vincent Price, Bette Davis, who was dying of cancer, and Ann Sothern, who earned her only Academy Award nomination for her final film performance.
Her final professional appearance was a cameo on the 1988 studio recording of Jerome Kern's Show Boat starring Frederica von Stade and Jerry Hadley, in which she affectingly spoke the few lines of The Old Lady on the Levee in the final scene. The last words of her century-spanning career: "Good night, dear."
Some in the entertainment industry were angry that Gish had not received an Oscar nomination for her role in The Whales of August, despite the fact that it was obviously her swan song. Gish, herself, was more complacent, remarking that it saved her the trouble of "losing to Cher" (who did, in fact, win the Oscar for her performance in Moonstruck). Ironically enough, Cher's then-boyfriend, Rob Camiletti, confided to a friend before the nominations were announced that, while Cher deserved to win the Oscar, she didn't have a chance of winning because the Academy would inevitably give it to Lillian Gish.

Career
The association between Gish and Griffith was so close that some suspected a romantic connection, an issue never acknowledged by Gish although several of their associates were certain they were at least briefly involved. For the remainder of her life she always referred to him as "Mr. Griffith".
She was involved with Charles Duell (a producer) and the drama critic and editor George Jean Nathan. Gish's association with Duell was something of a tabloid scandal in the 1920s after he sued her and made the details of their relationship public.
During the period of political turmoil in the United States that lasted from the outbreak of World War II in Europe until the attack on Pearl Harbor, she was unable to find work in Hollywood due to being blacklisted for her outspoken non-interventionist stance. She was an active member of the America First Committee, a controversial anti-intervention organization founded by retired General Robert E. Wood with aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh as its leading spokesman.[1]
She maintained a very close relationship with her sister Dorothy, as well as with Mary Pickford for her entire life. One of her closest friends was actress Helen Hayes. Gish was the godmother of Hayes' son James MacArthur.
She was a Republican.
She died in her sleep on February 27, 1993 as a result of heart failure aged 99. Her estate, which she left to Helen Hayes, who died a month later, was valued at several million dollars, and went to provide prizes for artistic excellence.
The main street in Massillon, Ohio is named after Gish, who had lived there during an early period of her life and fondly referred to it as her hometown throughout her career. She was interred beside her sister Dorothy at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church Columbarium in the undercroft of the church in the heart of New York City.

Filmography
Autobiographical:
Biographical & Other:

The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me (with Ann Pinchot) (Prentice-Hall, 1969)
Dorothy and Lillian Gish (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973)
An Actor's Life For Me (with Selma G. Lanes) (Viking Penguin, 1987)
Lillian Gish an Interpretation - Edward Wagenknecht (University of Washington, 1927)
Life and Lillian Gish - Albert Bigelow Paine (Macmillan, 1932)
Star Acting - Gish, Garbo, Davis - Charles Affron (E.P. Dutton, 1977)
A Moment with Miss Gish - Peter Bogdanovich (Santa Teresa Press, 1995)
Lillian Gish A Life on Stage and Screen - Stuart Oderman (McFarland & Company, 2000)
Lillian Gish Her Legend, Her Life - Charles Affron (Scribner, 2001) Books

Gish's life is documented in Terry Sanders' 1988 documentary Lillian Gish: An Actor's Life for Me.
Actress Jeanne Moreau produced a documentary on Lillian in the 1980s that has not been released. Documentaries about Lillian Gish

1893 Born in Springfield, Ohio on October 14
1912 Appeared in her first film, D.W. Griffith's An Unseen Enemy
1920 US Census in Mamaroneck, New York as "Lillian Gish"
1987 The Whales of August as final film
1993 Death in Manhattan on February 27 Trivia

Women's Cinema

Tuesday, November 27, 2007


Ferdinand Foch OM GCB (October 2, 1851March 20, 1929) was a French soldier, military theorist, and writer credited with possessing "the most original and subtle mind in the French Army" in the early 20th century. He served as general in the French Army during World War I and was made Marshal of France in its final year, 1918. Shortly after the start of the Spring Offensive, Germany's final attempt to win the war, Foch was chosen as supreme commander of the allied armies, a position that he held until November 11, 1918, when he accepted the German Surrender.
He advocated peace terms that would make Germany unable to ever pose a threat to France again. His words after the Treaty of Versailles, "This is not a peace. It is an armistice for 20 years," would prove prophetic.

Early life
On the outbreak of the war, Foch was in command of XX Corps, part of the Second Army of General de Castelnau. On August 14 the corps advanced towards the Sarrebourg-Morhange line, taking heavy casualties in the Battle of the Frontiers. The defeat of XV Corps to its right forced Foch into retreat. Foch acquitted himself well, covering the withdrawal to Nancy and the Charmes Gap, before lauching a counter-attack that prevented the Germans from crossing the Meurthe.
He was then selected to command the newly formed Ninth Army, which he was to command during the Battle of the Marne and the Race to the Sea. With his Chief of Staff Maxime Weygand, Foch managed to do this while the whole French Army was in full retreat. Only a week after taking command of 9th Army, he was forced to fight a series of defensive actions to prevent a German breakthrough. It was then that he spoke the famous words: "Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking." His counter-attack was an implementation of the theories he had developed during his staff college days, and succeeded in stopping the German advance. Foch received further reinforcements from the Fifth Army and, following another attack on his forces, counter-attacked again on the Marne. The Germans dug in before eventually retreating. Foch had been instrumental in stopping the great retreat and stabilising the Allied position.
Foch's successes gained him a further promotion, on October 4, when he was appointed Deputy Commander-in-Chief with responsibility for the Northern Army Group. When the Germans attacked on October 13, they narrowly failed to break through the British and French lines. They tried again at the end of the month during the First Battle of Ypres; this time suffering terrible casualties. Foch had again succeeded in co-ordinating a defence and winning against the odds. In October 1914, he was appointed to joint commander in chief with General Joffre. In 1915, he conducted the Artois Offensive, and, in 1916, the Battle of the Somme. He was strongly criticised for his tactics and the heavy casualties that were suffered by the Allied armies during these battles, and in December 1916 was removed from command, by General Joffre, and sent to command in Italy; Joffre was himself sacked days later.
Just a few months later, after the failure of General Nivelle, Foch was recalled and promoted to Chief of the General Staff under General Pétain.
On March 26, 1918, Foch was appointed Allied Supreme Commander with the title of Généralissime ("supreme General") with the job of co-ordinating the activities of the Allied armies. Despite being surprised by the German offensive on the Chemin des Dames, Foch prevented the advance of the German forces during the great Spring Offensive of 1918 at the Second Battle of Marne in July 1918. On 6 August 1918, Foch was made Marshal of France. Along with the British commander Field Marshal Haig, Foch planned the Grand Offensive, opening on September 26, 1918, which led to the defeat of Germany. Foch accepted the German surrender in November. On the day of the armistice, he was elected to the Académie des Sciences. Ten days later, he was unanimously elected to the Académie française.

Foch and World War I
In January 1919, at the Paris Peace Conference Foch presented a memorandum to the Allied plenipotentiaries in which he stated:
Henceforward the Rhine ought to be the Western military frontier of the German countries. Henceforward Germany ought to be deprived of all entrance and assembling ground, that is, of all territorial sovereignty on the left bank of the river, that is, of all facilities for invading quickly, as in 1914, Belgium, Luxembourg, for reaching the coast of the North Sea and threatening the United Kingdom, for outflanking the natural defences of France, the Rhine, Meuse, conquering the Northern Provinces and entering the Parisian area.

Paris Peace Conference
Foch was made a British Field Marshal in 1919, and, for his advice during the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920, as well as his pressure on Germany during the Great Poland Uprising, he was awarded with the title of Marshal of Poland in 1923.
On November 1, 1921 Foch was in Kansas City to take part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the Liberty Memorial that was being constructed there. Also present that day were Lieutenant General Baron Jacques of Belgium, Admiral David Beatty of Great Britain, General Armando Diaz of Italy and General John J. Pershing of the United States. One of the main speakers was Vice President Calvin Coolidge of the United States. In 1935 bas-reliefs of Foch, Jacques, Diaz and Pershing by sculptor Walker Hancock were added to the memorial.
Foch died on March 20th, 1929, and was interred in Les Invalides, next to Napoleon and many other famous French soldiers and officers.
A statue of Foch was set up at the Compiègne Armistice site when the area was converted into a national memorial. This statue was the one item left undisturbed by the Germans following their defeat of France in June, 1940. Following the signing of France's surrender on June 21, the Germans ravaged the area surrounding the railway car in which both the 1918 and 1940 surrenders had taken place. The statue was left standing, to view nothing but a wasteland.
A heavy cruiser and an aircraft carrier were named in his honour, as well as an early district of Gdynia, Poland. The latter was, however, renamed by the Communist government after World War II. Nevertheless, one of the major avenues of the town of Bydgoszcz, located in then in the Polish corridor, holds his name -as sign of gratitude for campaigning for Free Poland. A street in Paris is named after him, Avenue Foch, one in Grenoble, Boulevard Marechal Foch, as are Mariscal Foch in Quito, Ecuador, Rue Foch - a luxury shopping street in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, and Marshall Foch Street in the Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana.Fochville in South Africa was also named in his honor. A statue of Foch stands near to Victoria Station in London.

Ferdinand Foch Notes

Army Manoeuvres of 1912

Monday, November 26, 2007


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Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching · Hate speech · Hate crime · Genocide · Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Pogrom · Race war · Religious persecution · Gay bashing · The Holocaust · Armenian Genocide · Blood libel · Black Legend · Paternalism · Ephebiphobia
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Religious persecution is systematic mistreatment of an individual or group due to their religious affiliation.
In a secular state, claims of religious persecution are effectively a demand of the fulfilment of Freedom of religion and Religious pluralism. In a non-secular state, they are laments about the intolerance of the state religion and the demand for Religious toleration or disestablishment.
Often it is the alleged persecution of individuals within a group in the attempt to maintain their religion identity, or the exercise of power by an individual or organization that causes members of a religious group to suffer. Persecution in this case may refer to unwarranted arrest, false imprisonment, beatings, torture, unjustified execution, denial of benefits, and denial of civil rights and liberties and especially other acts of violence, such as war, torture, and ethnic cleansing.It also may refer to the confiscation or destruction of property, or incitement to hate among other things.
Not only theorists of secularization (who presume a decline of religiosity in general) would willingly assume that religious persecution is a thing of the past. However, with the rise of fundamentalism and religiously related terrorism this assumption has become even more controversial. Indeed, in many countries of the world today, religious persecution is a human rights problem.

Reasons for religious persecution

Main article: Religious intolerance Persecution for heresy and blasphemy
More than 300 Roman Catholics were put to death by English governments between 1535 and 1681 for treason, thus for secular than religious offences. This dramatically worsened the situation of the Catholics in England. English governments continued to fear Popish Plot;

Persecution for political reasons
Out of Egypt came monotheistic Judaism under Moses, its prophet. Among the Ten Commandments of the new religion was one that forbade the worship of any other god than its one true God. When Imperial Rome extended its reach to their area, various conflicts arose.
Out of Judaism came Christianity, which because it was strictly monotheistic and also encouraged conversion was a much more powerful threat to the established pantheistic order than had been Judaism. The Jewish exemption from the requirement to participate in public cults was lifted and the anti-monotheistic religious persecution of the Christians began under Nero.
By the eighth century Christianity had attained a clear ascendancy in Europe and neighboring regions and a period of consolidation began marked by the pursuit of heretics and various other forms of monotheistic religious persecution. Christian monotheistic religious persecution perhaps reached its apex with the Inquisition.
Meanwhile south and east of the Christian empires yet another monotheist religion had arisen: Islam. Generally following the Jewish tradition of tolerance towards non-believers provided they maintained the outward habits of believers, Muslims spread across northern Africa, the Middle East, northern India, and adjoining regions. Those who actively oppose Islam or try to persuade people in their community not to convert to Islam may face persecution or death threats (which may even be carried out). At times, attempts at peaceful persuasion against Islam have led to persecution.
See also: Historical persecution by Christians, Persecution of Ancient Greek religion

Historical persecution
Since the 18th century there have been many occasions where religious persecution has occurred.

Present Period

Main article: Persecution of Bahá'ís Bahá'ís in Iran

Main article: anti-Semitism Judaism
It is estimated that over 1.5 million Christians have been killed by the Janjaweed, the Arab Muslim militia, and even suspected Islamists in northern Sudan since 1984.

Christianity
Some people believe that both the United States and Al-Qaeda are involved in religious persecution. The September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States have been suspected by religious figures of happening because of America's relative secularity; though, it should be noted that Al Qaida never once in their public statements used that as a justification for 9/11 or any other attack. The reasons Al Qaida give for their attacks are the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia, the location of Islam's holy sites, which they consider sacrilege, the occupation of Muslim territory, and American financial support of Israel.
Christian churches have been bombed in Pakistan and there have been attempted attacks on churches elsewhere. Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Istanbul in Turkey etc have been attacked, mainly because these governments are seen by the extremists to be collaborating with foreign non-Islamic powers.
On the other hand, shortly after September 11 there was a sharp increase of Islamophobia in the United States and the United Kingdom, where Muslims are sometimes attacked in public or even killed [5]. The 21st century "War on terror" was at one point referred to as a "crusade" until the Muslim understanding of the term was pointed out, and abuses by American soldiers during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 (e.g. the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse) made some Muslims felt that they were being persecuted, therefore giving rise to anti-American feelings, coordinated attacks by extremist Islamic groups and insurgency in the Middle East.

United States and Islam

Main article: anti-Mormon United States and Mormonism
The government of People's Republic of China in mainland China has banned the spiritual group Falun Gong and conducted massive crackdown of the group, including using torture and "re-education" camp to force the adherents to abandon Falun Gong. There are reports indicating that the PRC has engaged in organ harvesting from live Falun Gong adherents, among other human rights abuses.

People's Republic of China
Religious persecution and discrimination have been an official part of U.S. governmental policies and law regarding Native Americans. For example, traditional indigenous ceremonies such as the Sun Dance and Ghost Dance were officially outlawed in the late 1800s.
In modern times, charges of religious persecution by the U.S. government against Native Americans continue. These charges have largely centered on the eagle feather law which governs the possession of eagle feathers for religious use, the use of ceremonial peyote, and the repatriation of Native American human remains and cultrual and religious objects found in museums and private collections.
The eagle feather law, which governs the possession and religious use of eagle feathers, was officially written to protect then dwindling eagle populations while still protecting traditional Native American spiritual and religious customs, of which the use of eagles are central. The eagle feather law later met charges of promoting racial and religious discrimination due to the law's provision authorizing the possession of eagle feathers to members of only one ethnic group, Native Americans, and forbidding Native Americans from including non-Native Americans in indigenous customs involving eagle feathers — a common modern practice dating back to the early 1500s.
Peyote, a spineless cactus found in the desert southwest and Mexico, is a commonly used in certain traditions of Native American religion and spirituality, most notably in the Native American Church. Prior to the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) in 1978, and as amended in 1994, the religious use of peyote was not afforded legal protection. This resulted in the arrest of many Native Americans and non-Native Americans participating in traditional indigenous religion and spirituality. Many individuals today encounter harassment and persecution by their employers for ingesting peyote while participating in the Native American Church due to the cactus containing the psychotropic mescaline, a controlled substance.
Native Americans often hold strong personal and spiritual connections to their ancestors and often believe that their remains should rest undisturbed. This has often placed Native Americans at odds with archaeologists who have often dug on Native American burial grounds and other sites considered sacred, often removing artifacts and human remains – an act considered sacrilegious by many Native Americans. For years, Native American communities decried the removal of ancestral human remains and cultural and religious objects, charging such activities as acts of genocide, religious persecution, and discrimination. Many Native Americans called on the government, museums, and private collectors for the return of remains and sensitive objects for reburial. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which gained passage in 1990, established a means for Native Americans to request the return or "repatriation" of human remains and other sensitive cultural, religious, and funery items held by federal agencies and federally assisted museums and institutions.

United States and Native Americans

"I have come from a country where people are hanged if they talk." — Leonhard Euler
"Religious persecution has come about because others are too afraid to learn about something new..." — Zachary Jensen
"No orthodox church ever had power that it did not endeavor to make people think its way by force and flame. And yet every church that ever was established commenced in the minority, and while it was in the minority advocated free speech -- every one. John Calvin, the founder of the Presbyterian Church, while he lived in France, wrote a book on religious toleration in order to show that all men had an equal right to think; and yet that man afterward, clothed in a little authority, forgot all his sentiments about religious liberty, and had poor Serviettes burned at the stake, for differing with him on a question that neither of them knew anything about. In the minority, Calvin advocated toleration -- in the majority, he practiced murder." — Robert Green Ingersoll. Literature

Sunday, November 25, 2007

List of tallest buildings and structures in the United Kingdom Structures taller than 300 metres

Structures 250 to 300 metres tall

Structures 150 to 200 metres tall

List of tallest buildings in Leeds
List of tallest buildings and structures in Birmingham
List of tallest buildings in Manchester
List of tallest structures in London
Skyscrapers in Glasgow
Category:UK transmitter sites

Saturday, November 24, 2007


The Requiem (from Latin requiem, accusative case of requies, rest) or Requiem Mass (informally, a funeral Mass), also known formally (in Latin) as the Missa pro defunctis or Missa defunctorum, is a liturgical service of the Roman Catholic Church, Anglo-Catholic and High Church Anglicans, as well as certain Lutheran Churches in the United States. There is also a requiem, with a wholly different ritual form and texts, that is observed in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. The common theme of requiems is prayer for the salvation of the soul(s) of the departed, and it is used both at services immediately preceding a burial, and on occasions of more general remembrance.
"Requiem" is also the title of various musical compositions used in such liturgical services or as concert pieces as settings of the portions of that Mass which have been traditionally sung in the Roman Catholic liturgy.
While the prayers in the regular Mass as the Introit and Gradual change according to the Calendar of Saints, the text for the requiem Mass is particularly fixed. Originally such funeral musical compositions were meant to be performed in liturgical service, with monophonic chant. Eventually the dramatic character began to appeal to composers to an extent that made the requiem a genre of its own.

The Roman Rite liturgy
For many centuries the texts of the requiem were sung to Gregorian melodies. The Requiem by Johannes Ockeghem, written sometime in the latter half of the 15th century, is the earliest surviving polyphonic setting. There was a setting by the elder composer Dufay, possibly earlier, which is now lost: Ockeghem's may have been modelled on it. Other composers who wrote Requiems before 1550 include Pedro de Escobar, Antoine de Févin, Cristóbal Morales, and Pierre de La Rue; that by La Rue is probably the second oldest, after Ockeghem's.
Over 2,000 requiems have been composed to the present day. Typically the Renaissance settings, especially those not written on the Iberian Peninsula, may be performed a cappella (i.e. without necessary accompanying instrumental parts), whereas beginning around 1600 composers more often preferred to use instruments to accompany a choir, and also include vocal soloists. There is great variation between compositions in how much of liturgical text is set to music.
Most composers omit sections of the liturgical prescription, most frequently the Gradual and the Tract. Fauré omits the Dies iræ, while the very same text had often been set by French composers in previous centuries as a stand-alone work.
Sometimes composers divide an item of the liturgical text into two or more movements; because of the length of its text, the Dies iræ is the most frequently divided section of the text (as with Mozart, for instance). The Introit and Kyrie, being immediately adjacent in the actual Roman Catholic liturgy, are often composed as one movement.
Musico-thematic relationships among movements of Requiems can be found as well.

Musical compositions
Some settings contain additional texts, such as the devotional motet Pie Jesu (in the settings of Dvořák, Fauré, Duruflé, and Lloyd Webber—Fauré set it as a soprano solo in the center). Libera me (from the Absolution) and In paradisum (from the burial service, which in the case of a funeral follows after the Mass) conclude some compositions. Other added movements have been composed as well, such as the English Psalms Out of the Deep and The Lord is My Shepherd included in John Rutter's setting.

Added movements


Libera me, Domine, de morte æterna, in die illa tremenda, quando coeli movendi sunt et terra, dum veneris iudicare sæculum per ignem. Tremens factus sum ego et timeo, dum discussio venerit atque ventura ira. Dies illa, dies iræ, calamitatis, et miseriæ, dies magna et amara valde. Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

("Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death on that fearful day, when the heavens and the earth are moved, when you will come to judge the world with fire. I am made to tremble and I fear, because of the judgment that will come, and also the coming wrath. That day, day of wrath, calamity, and misery, day of great and exceeding bitterness. Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.")

Libera me


In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.

("May angels lead you into Paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your coming and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem. May a choir of angels receive you, and with Lazarus, who once was poor, may you have eternal rest.")

Requiem In paradisum

Main article: Pie Jesu Pie Jesu
Beginning in the 18th century and continuing through the 19th, many composers wrote what are effectively concert requiems, which by virtue of employing forces too large, or lasting such a considerable duration, prevent them being readily used in an ordinary funeral service; the requiems of Gossec, Berlioz, Verdi, and Dvořák are essentially dramatic concert oratorios. A counter-reaction to this tendency came from the Cecilian movement, which recommended restrained accompaniment for liturgical music, and frowned upon the use of operatic vocal soloists.

Non-Roman Catholic requiems

Main article: Kaddish Jewish Mourners' Kaddish

Main article: Memorial service (Orthodox) Eastern Orthodox Requiem
The Anglican Book of Common Prayer contains seven texts which are collectively known as "funeral sentences"; several composers have written settings of these seven texts, which are generally known collectively as a "burial service." Composers who have set the Anglican burial service to music include Thomas Morley, Orlando Gibbons, and Henry Purcell. The text of these seven sentences, from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, is:

I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shalt stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.
We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord.
Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay.
In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour, but of thee, O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased? Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.
Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts; shut not thy merciful ears to our prayer; but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty, O holy and merciful Saviour, thou most worthy judge eternal, suffer us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death, to fall from thee.
I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, From henceforth blessed are the dead which die in the Lord: even so saith the Spirit: for they rest from their labours. Anglican burial service
In the 20th century the requiem evolved in several new directions. The genre of war requiems is perhaps the most notable, which comprise of compositions dedicated to the memory of people killed in wartime. These often include extra-liturgical poems of a pacifist or non-liturgical nature; for example, the War Requiem of Benjamin Britten juxtaposes the Latin text with the poetry of Wilfred Owen, and Robert Steadman's Mass in Black intersperses environmental poetry and prophecies of Nostradamus. The several Holocaust requiems may be regarded as a specific subset of this type. The World Requiem of John Foulds was written in the aftermath of the First World War and initiated the Royal British Legion's annual festival of remembrance.
Lastly, the 20th century saw the development of secular requiems, written for public performance without specific religious observance (e.g., Kabalevsky's War Requiem, to poems by Robert Rozhdestvensky). Herbert Howells's unaccompanied Requiem uses Psalm 23 ("The Lord is my shepherd"), Psalm 121 ("I will lift up mine eyes"), "Salvator mundi" ("O Saviour of the world," in English), "Requiem aeternam" (two different settings), and "I heard a voice from heaven." Some composers have written purely instrumental works bearing the title of requiem, as exemplified by the most famous of these, Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem. Igor Stravinsky's Requiem canticles mixes instrumental movements with segments of the "Introit," "Dies irae," "Pie Jesu," and "Libera me."

20th century developments
See also: Requiems
Many composers have written Requiems. Some of the most famous include:

Johannes Ockeghem's Requiem, the earliest to survive, written sometime in the mid-to-late 15th century
Victoria's Requiem of 1603, (part of a longer Office for the Dead)
Mozart's Requiem in D minor (Mozart died before its completion)
Berlioz' Grande Messe des Morts
Verdi's Requiem
Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem, based on passages from Luther's Bible.
Fauré's Requiem in D minor
Dvořák's Requiem, Op. 89
Britten's War Requiem, which incorporated poems by Wilfred Owen.
Duruflé's Requiem, based almost exclusively on the chants from the Graduale Romanum. Famous Requiems

Other Requiem composers

Giovanni Francesco Anerio
Gianmatteo Asola
Giulio Belli
Antoine Brumel
Manuel Cardoso
Joan Cererols
Pierre Certon
Clemens non Papa
Guillaume Dufay (lost)
Pedro de Escobar
Antoine de Févin
Francisco Guerrero
Jacobus de Kerle
Orlande de Lassus
Duarte Lobo
Jean Maillard
Jacques Mauduit
Manuel Mendes
Cristóbal de Morales
Johannes Ockeghem (the earliest to survive)
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Costanzo Porta
Johannes Prioris
Jean Richafort
Pierre de la Rue
Claudin de Sermisy
Jacobus Vaet
Tomás Luis de Victoria Renaissance

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Jean Gilles
Claudio Monteverdi (lost)
Michael Praetorius
Heinrich Schütz
Jan Dismas Zelenka
Antonio Lotti (Requiem in F Major) Baroque

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Luigi Cherubini
Florian Leopold Gassmann
François-Joseph Gossec
Michael Haydn
Andrea Luchesi
José Maurício Nunes Garcia Classical period

Hector Berlioz
João Domingos Bomtempo
Johannes Brahms
Anton Bruckner
Carl Czerny
Gaetano Donizetti
Antonín Dvořák
Gabriel Fauré
Charles Gounod
Franz Liszt
Max Reger
Camille Saint-Saëns
Robert Schumann
Franz von Suppé
Charles Villiers Stanford
Giuseppe Verdi
Richard Wetz
See also: Messa per Rossini Romantic era

Malcolm Archer
Vyacheslav Artyomov
Osvaldas Balakauskas
Alfred Desenclos
Ralph Dunstan
Maurice Duruflé
Hans Werner Henze
Herbert Howells
Karl Jenkins
Joonas Kokkonen
Cyrillus Kreek
György Ligeti
Frigyes Hidas
Frank Martin
Krzysztof Penderecki
Ildebrando Pizzetti
Jocelyn Pook
Zbigniew Preisner
John Rutter
Alfred Schnittke
Valentin Silvestrov
Robert Steadman
Igor Stravinsky
Toru Takemitsu
John Tavener
Erkki-Sven Tüür
Andrew Lloyd Webber Post-romantic/20th century

Kentaro Sato
Karl Jenkins
Tyzen Hsiao New Era/21st century
English with Latin
German
French, English, German with Latin
Polish with Latin
Russian
Taiwanese

Benjamin Britten
Evgeni Kostitsyn
Herbert Howells
John Rutter
Michael Praetorius
Heinrich Schütz
Franz Schubert
Johannes Brahms
Edison Denisov
Krzysztof Penderecki
Zbigniew Preisner
Sergei Taneyev - Cantata John of Damascus, Op.1 (Text by Alexey Tolstoy)
Dmitri Kabalevsky - War Requiem (Text by Robert Rozhdestvensky)
Elena Firsova - Requiem, Op.100 (Text by Anna Akhmatova)
Tyzen Hsiao - Ilha Formosa: Requiem for the Formosan Martyrs (Text by Yang-Min Lin), 2001 Requiems by language (other than purely Latin)

The Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth has a song named "Requiem" on their 1995 album Orchid.
Jethro Tull has a song named "Requiem" on their album Minstrel in the Gallery.
Alexander Borodin composed a "Requiem" piece for the collaborative piano work Paraphrases, which is a set of pieces based on the theme commonly known as "Chopsticks".
In a parody of a medieval geisslerlied, the monks in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail chant the Pie Jesu while striking themselves with punch card sized wooden boards.
"Requiem of Spirit" was a song in the popular Nintendo 64 video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Requiem for a Dream was a novel written by Hubert Selby, Jr. and was later adapted into a critically acclaimed film (2000) by Darren Aronofsky.
Jesper Kyd is a popular composer who has composed Requiem songs for many videogames, the Hitman series being among the most popular.
In 1983 Pink Floyd released an album called The Final Cut. The album's secondary title was "A Requiem for the Post-War dream".
"Requiem for a Sinner" is the opening track on the 1977 album World Anthem by Canadian hard rock band Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush, and most fans consider it to be one of their best songs.
Requiem is the title of the upcoming, debut album from Hip-Hop artist One-Way.
Requiem is the closing section in Arthur Miller's famous play, Death of a Salesman.
"Requiem for a city", by Mike Oldfield, is the second track of the soundtrack to the movie The Killing Fields.
Black Metal band Sigh based their album Hangman's Hymn on the Catholic Requiem. The album contains sampled sections of the Requiem.
The group Gregorian sang a Requiem (in English/Latin) on their 2004 album The Dark Side.
American musician Jandek released an album called White Box Requiem in 1996.
Requiem is the closing section in Elizabeth (1998).
The punk band Bad Religion has a song named "Requiem for Dissent" on their album New Maps of Hell (2007).
The anime series Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has a song named "'Libera Me' From Hell" which combines operatic verses from "Libera Me" with rock and rap style music.
The German power metal band Blind Guardian released the song 'Inquisition,' which repeates the Jesu Domine section, in their album Follow the Blind. They also released a song called 'The Script for my Requiem' in the album Immaginations from the Other Side.
The band, I Am Ghost released their newest CD in 2006, Lovers' Requiem, which has two songs containing much of these lyrics, Crossing The River Styx, and The Denouement. They are in the Italian language.
There is a "Requiem for Evita" in Evita
Album from Swedish band Bathory
Requiem is Seymour's Overdrive from Final Fantasy X
Title of a piece by Yoko Kanno for the anime series Wolf's Rain.
Requiem for a Nun a novel by William Faulkner
Requiem is also the name of Siegfried's sword from the Soul Calibur series See also