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Russell Shortt is a Personal Travel Consultant with Exploring Ireland - the leading specialists in customized, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland.

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Theobold Wolfe Tone
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Theobold Wolfe Tone, born in Dublin, the son of a Protestant coach-builder, studied law at Trinity College Dublin and qualified as a barrister from King's Inns at the age of 26 and attended the Inns of Court in London. A member of the prominent Protestant Ascendancy, Tone was heavily influenced by the radicalism of the American and French revolutionaries. Tone argued that the only way to counteract British influence in Irish affairs was by parliamentary reform and that the only way to achieve this was if Irish Catholics and the Protestant radicals united in a reform programme that included Catholic ...

The Norman Invasion of Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] King Henry II of England landed in Waterford in October in 1171 with a powerful force of well-equipped knights, archers and foot soldiers. This was reacting to his fears of a powerful kingdom under Strongbow arising on England's doorstep. Henry met with no resistance, the Normans, Irish and Norse all swore oaths of allegiance to him, likewise the bishops met at Cashel and made submission to him.

The Life and Times of Napper Tandy
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] James Napper Tandy was born in 1740, the son of a Dublin Protestant ironmonger. He attended a Quaker boarding school in Co. Kildare, studying alongside Edmund Burke.

The Implementation of Poynings' Law in Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Lancastrian Tudor, Henry VII succeeded to the English throne in 1485 after the Battle of Bosworth. Henry was determined to bring order to England after almost a century of civil war. His marriage to Elizabeth of York had the effect of combining the Lancastrian and Yorkist factions within the Tudor line thus eliminating further dissension regarding the line of succession.

Michael Davitt and the Irish National Land League
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Michael Davitt was born in Straide, County Mayo in 1846 at the height of the Great Famine. He was the second of five children born to peasant parents. When Michael was only four years old his family was evicted and they were forced to emigrate to Lancashire in England.

Liberator of the People - Daniel O'Connell
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Daniel O'Connell was born in 1775 near Caherciveen in County Kerry. Under the patronage of a wealthy uncle he studied in France and was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1794, transferring two years later to King's Inns in Dublin. He was called to the bar in 1798 and was one of the first Catholics to enter the legal profession after the ban on Catholics was lifted in 1792.

Cromwell in Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Oliver Cromwell led a Parliamentary invasion of Ireland in 1649. The parliament had disposed of Charles I and abolished the monarchy, and it now wished to turn its attentions upon the Irish Confederate Catholics. Cromwell's hostility was religious as well as political, he was passionately opposed to the Roman Catholic Church which he perceived as denying the primacy of the Bible in favour of papal and clerical authority and he blamed them for persecution of Protestants in Europe and indeed of Ulster planters in 1641.

A History of King Henry VIII and the Tudor Conquest of Ireland
[Reference-and-Education] King Henry VIII's reign saw a new departure regarding the English crown's attitude and policy to Ireland. Before his reign the English crown held no sway in most parts of Ireland, however by the time Henry's daughter Elizabeth passed over to her successor King James I of England he was undisputed ruler of the entire island of Ireland. Between the four sovereigns of the House of Tudor - Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth; they completed the conquest of Ireland.

The Decline of Norman Influence in Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Norman conquest of Ireland began to lose momentum in the middle of the thirteenth century. This was due to a number of contributing factors which included their sparse population outside of their main centres of influence in Leinster and parts of Munster, lack of male heirs, the absence of a systematic plan of conquest for the country and drainage of men and supplies for wars in Wales and Scotland.

The Consolidation of Norman Power in Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Normans implemented the first centralized administration system in Ireland. King John I constructed Dublin Castle and an active government was established. Coinage was introduced as was a jury system and sheriffs were appointed. Parliament was established in 1297 in which representatives form each county and division sat.

The Arrival of the Milesians in Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] An Leabhar Gabala (The Book of Invasions, c. eleventh century) details the origins of the Gaelic people. They descended from the Goideal Glas, who came from Scythia (a vast area covering present day Ukraine, South West Russia and Central Asia), and Scota, a daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh. Their descendants left Egypt at the time of the Exodus of Moses, they wandered until they arrived in the Iberian Peninsula, where they settled.

Strongbow in Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Between 1156 and 1166 the struggle for political power in Ireland lay between Murtough MacLochalainn of Ailech in the north and Rory O'Connor, king of Connaught. Dermot MacMurrough allied with MacLochalinn while Tiernan O'Rourke of Breifne supported O'Connor. O'Rourke was determined to destroy MacMurrough because his wife Dervorgilla had been abducted by MacMurrough with Norman accounts stating that it was she who arranged the abduction.

Statutes of Kilkenny and the Gaelic Revival
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] By the end of the thirteenth century, the government in Dublin had become alarmed at the way in which the English were assimilating into Gaelic culture, becoming 'more Irish than the Irish themselves'. It began to pass a number of statutes designed to keep the Gaelic Irish and the English settlers apart.

Robert Emmet, Irish Patriot
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Robert Emmet was born in Dublin, in 1778 into the Protestant Ascendancy. He became heavily influenced by the ideals of the French and American revolutions and became a member of the Society of the United Irishmen. From 1800 to 1802, Emmet resided on the continent with leaders of the United Irishmen who had been exiled from Ireland following the rebellion of 1798.

A History of Richard, Duke of York in Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Outside the Pale, Ireland was divided up into a plethora of individual supremacies some were loyal to the English Crown, some were not. The Gaelic chieftains directed their fiefdoms with little or no recognition of the English administration. Three great Anglo-Irish lordships, straddled the south of the country namely the Butler earldom of Ormond and the Fitzgerald earldoms of Desmond and Kildare.

A History of the Desmond Rebellions in Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Desmond Rebellions occurred between 1569-1573 and 1579-1583 staged by the Earls of Desmond against Elizabeth I's attempts to impose her control on the province of Munster. James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald launched the First Desmond Rebellion in 1569, attacking Cork and laying siege to Kilkenny. Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland mobilised troops and began devastating Fitzmaurice's allies' lands.

A History of Silken Thomas in Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] In 1534, Garret Oge, Earl of Kildare and Chief Governor was summoned to England by Henry VIII. He entrusted the administration of the country to his eldest son, Thomas, Lord Offaly. On 11 June 1534, Offaly galloped into Dublin with a band of armed men each sporting a silken fringe on his jacket giving Lord Offaly the moniker of 'Silken Thomas'.

A History of the Flight of Earls From Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Tudor conquest of Ireland was embarked upon, in order to protect England's exposed Western flank in a new Europe divided by religion. However, even after victory in the Nine Years War, the conquest was still not complete. It was testament to Hugh O'Neill's achievement that the Nine Years War had ended in a negotiated settlement.

A History of the Gallowglass in Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Gallowglass derive their name from the Gaelic, Gall Gaeil meaning 'foreign Gaels'. They were a mercenary warrior elite that originated amongst Gaelic-Norse clans residing in the Western Isles and Highlands of Scotland. They served Irish lords from as early as 1259. By 1512 there were reported to be around sixty groups operating throughout the country under the control of the Irish nobility.

A History of Granuaile in Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Grace O'Malley, Granuaile, Ghrainne Mhaol, The Sea Queen of Connaught - she was known by many monikers - she was a pirate, seafarer, trader and chieftain in sixteenth century Ireland. She was born in 1530 in Co. Mayo, the daughter of Eoghan Dubhdara O'Mhaille, chieftain of the O'Mhaille clan who were a seafaring family who taxed all those who fished off their coast.

A History of the Nine Years War in Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Nine Years War in Ireland took place from 1594-1603 and was fought between the Gaelic clans of O'Neill and O'Donnell and Queen Elizabeth I's forces. The leader of the Gaelic resistance was Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone he joined forces with some of the Ulster lords who had been fighting to uphold their sovereignty and keep the English out of Ulster. O'Neill realised that there would be no separate policy for Ulster so he decided to involve the whole country in the war.

A History of the Irish in America
[Reference-and-Education] Irish Americans number over forty-four million, twelve percent of the total American population, the only larger ethnic group are German-Americans. The largest Irish-American communities are in Chicago, Boston, New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Kansas City and Savannah, Georgia. Irish people and been emigrating in considerable numbers to the States since the 1760s, however it was during and after the Great Famine of the 1840s that literally millions sailed west across the Atlantic.

A History of Irish-Canadians
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Irish-Canadians are the fourth largest ethnic group in Canada with a population of four and half million or fourteen percent of the total population. The earliest recorded Irish presence in Canada was in 1537 when a group of fishermen form Cork sailed to Newfoundland. Many Irish, especially from Co.

A History of the Spanish Armada in Ireland
[Reference-and-Education] The Spanish Armada was a fleet numbering one hundred and thirty ships that set sail from Lisbon in August 1588, with the mission of invading England. The fleet sailed up the English Channel in a crescent formation, with the troop transports in the centre. At Calais they were met by an English fleet, under the cover of darkness the English set fireships alight, using the tide to carry them into the massed Spanish fleet, causing massive confusion.

An Account of the Sinking of the Lusitania
[Reference-and-Education] The Lusitania was a luxury ocean liner that sailed the Cunard Line's Liverpool-New York route from 1907. She was the largest vessel afloat at the time with a total of seven decks. It was estimated that over two hundred thousand people gathered to witness her depart on her maiden voyage.

A History of the 1641 Rebellion in Ireland
[Reference-and-Education] By the seventeenth century the traditional divide between the Gaelic Irish and Old English was declining; they had assimilated with one another and they were united by their shared religion, Catholicism. In addition, they were allied together in the face of the huge influx of Protestant English and Scottish settlers during the Plantations who were threatening the political position of the wealthier Irish Catholics. The vast majority of this group were not opposed to the supremacy of Charles I but they wished to be full subjects and maintain their pre-eminent position in Irish society.

A History of the Ulster Plantation in Ireland
[Reference-and-Education] The Flight of the Earls of 1607 had left Ulster leaderless ad the people defenseless, it also gave the English administration a free hand to implement a policy of plantation across the province. It was planned on a much more systematic and comprehensive scale than previous plantations in the country. Each county was to be divided into segregated areas, placing the native Irish in defined places and creating a new network of Protestant communities.

A History of the Penal Laws in Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Treaty of Limerick of 1691 marked the third great defeat for the Catholic cause in seventeenth century Ireland. The Irish Parliament, which was now entirely Protestant began reinforcing their position as the ascendancy in Ireland. Catholics and Protestant non-conformists were again liable for payment of tithes to the established church and a comprehensive series of new anti-Catholic legislation was passed aimed at keeping Catholics in permanent subjection.

The Life and Times of Thomas Meagher in Ireland, Australia and America
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Thomas Francis Meagher was born in 1823 in Waterford, Ireland. He was educated at Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare and Stoneyhurst College, Lancashire, England.

The Movie Hunger, the Life of Bobby Sands, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Bobby Sands was born on 9 March 1954 in Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was a predominately loyalist area and Sands' family were forced to move due to loyalist intimidation.

A History of the Fighting 69th
[Reference-and-Education] After the failed Young Irelanders Rebellion of 1848, many of the movement's leaders made their way to New York. They sought to form an Irish Brigade to free Ireland from British control, they began to organise independent military companies in New York City. Their intention was to rally Irish migrants who were discontented with British control of Irish affairs.

The Life and Times of Countess Markiewicz, Irish Patriot
[Reference-and-Education] Countess Markiewicz was born as Constance Gore-Booth in 1868 in London. Her father had an estate at Lissadell in the north of County Sligo, Ireland; the children grew up there and Constance and her sister Eva were childhood friends of WB Yeats whose artistic and political ideas were a strong influence on them. Constance went to study art at the Slade School of Art in London, she became politically active and joined the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.

The Irishness of Barack Obama, President of the United States of America
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] Barack Obama's great-great-great-grandfather, Falmouth Kearney was born and reared in Moneygall, Co. Offaly, Ireland. His father, Joseph was a shoemaker but Falmouth left Ireland at the tender age of nineteen, sailing on the SS Marmion and arriving in New York on 20 March, 1850.

A History of Napoleon's Irish Legion
[Reference-and-Education] Napoleon's Irish Legion was created in August 1803 with a view to spearheading an invasion of Ireland. Napoleon thought that the force would be regarded as a liberating force rather than an invading one, few French troops would need to be committed and it would tie up a good number of English troops. To achieve these goals, the Legion was expanded from battalion to regiment, men were recruited from Scottish and Irish Jacobite expatriates, POW camps, press-ganged Irish sailors and German and Polish recruits.

A List of Irish Christmas Customs
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] Ireland is the origin of many Christmas traditions and customs that have become widely used throughout the world. Holly and subsequently holly wreaths have their origins in the Celtic tradition, the Celts believed that holly represented life and rebirth. They perceived the evergreen leaves as representing life during the long, harsh winter and the red berries as representing the coming of Spring.

The Movie Hunger, the Life of Bobby Sands, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Republican prisoners had organised a series of protests seeking to regain their previous political prisoner status. This commenced with the blanket protest in 1976, in which prisoners refused to wear prison issue uniform and wore blankets instead. In the H-Blocks ill treatment was perpetuated by the prison authorities against prisoners in an attempt to break their resistance to criminalisation.

An Account of the Irish Slave Trade
[Reference-and-Education] In a proclamation issued in 1625, it was ordered that Irish political prisoners be transported across the Atlantic and sold as slaves to English planters who were at that time settling the islands of the West Indies. A 1637 census shows that 69 % of the population of Montserrat were Irish slaves, there were also sizeable numbers on neighbouring Antigua and Guiana. However, there were not enough political prisoners to meet the demand, so people began to be shipped for the slightest infractions and most minor of crimes.

A History of Grattan's Parliament in Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Henry Grattan was born in Dublin in 1746 into the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy. He studied classics at Trinity College Dublin while also honing his talents has a marvellous orator. He was called to the bar in 1772 but he never really concentrated on a career in law rather devoting himself to politics entering the Irish Parliament in 1775.

A History of the Irish Republican Brotherhood
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), or the Fenian organisation was founded simultaneously in Dublin and New York in 1858 by a number of individuals who had been connected with the 1848 rebellion in Ireland, which included - James Stephens, John O'Mahony, Charles Kickham, John O'Leary, Thomas Clarke Luby and Michael Doheny. They organised the movement along the lines of 'circles' which was comparative to a regiment, it was very secretive with each rank only knowing the one above it. The Fenians believed that armed revolution was the only way forward and they therefore prepared for an uprising for when Britain ...

The Most Beautiful Revolutionary in the World - Maud Gonne
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Maud Gonne was born in Tongham, Surrey, England in 1865. Her father was an officer with the 17th Light Dragoons, in 1868 he was posted to Ireland and the whole family moved to Dublin. Her mother died in 1871 of tuberculosis, Maud and her sister were sent to be educated in France.

A Biography of Michael Collins
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Michael Collins was born in Sam's Cross, near Clonakilty in Co. Cork, Ireland in 1890. At the age of fifteen he emigrated to London, taking the British Civil Service Examination and securing employment with the Post Office.

Black 47 - Ireland's Great Famine
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] In the early decades of the nineteenth century, Irish people were growing and consuming the potato - an abundant and healthy food which yielded more per acre than any other grain crop. It was an ideal crop as it enabled farmers to produce grain purely as a cash crop and charge higher rents, nor did they need to pay laborers, they were satisfied with a patch of ground on which to grow potatoes for themselves. Those who managed to possess sizable portions were able to sub-let portions of land, fathers subdivided holdings to provide for their sons.

The Uncrowned King of Ireland - Charles Stuart Parnell - Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Charles Stuart Parnell was born in Avondale, Co. Wicklow, Ireland in 1846, the son of a wealthy Anglo-Irish landowner. His father died in 1859 and the young Parnell inherited the Avondale estate, at the time he was studying at Magdalene College, Cambridge but due to the financial problems of the estate, he was forced to abandon his degree.

The Uncrowned King of Ireland - Charles Stuart Parnell, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] In 1882 he changed the name of the Home Rule League to the Irish Parliamentary Party and introduced a strict party whip and formal party structure. The Irish Parliamentary Party is generally seen as the first modern political party, the main British political parties later used the Parnellite model for their party structures. Successive Liberal and Conservative governments during the 1880s depended upon Parnell's unified Irish bloc to form coalitions.

Irish Socialists in the Spanish Civil War
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] In 1933, Frank Ryan along with George Gilmore and Peader O'Donnell proposed the establishment of a new left-wing republican organisation which would be called the Republican Congress, to the Irish Republican Army. It was rejected and the three resigned their duties within the Irish Republican Army. Other disaffected members who wanted to achieve their goals through Socialism, began to join the Republican Congress.

Review - Kings of Leon, Aha Shake Heartbreak (2004)
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Proof. These were no Kentucky Fried Strokes. You only get a year to write your sophomore, at thirteen songs in under forty minutes, it seems the Kings took a week-end knocking out a great record. It grabs you by the cojones and never, ever lets up, thankfully it measures well under the hour. Oh it's filthy! Genet filthy! All knowing but unforgiving. The opener Slow Nights, So Long, swamp rocks the mop tops I Saw Her Standing There, she's seventeen, wasted and he hates her face but what the hell?

Public Enemy Number One - John Dillinger
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] You write an article on John Dillinger and you immediately fall into glorification of a villain, it's inevitable. His life was overly dramatic, the stuff of movies, the stuff that James Cagney was thrilling audiences across America in movies like The Public Enemy (1931) and G-Men (1935).

Review, Kings of Leon, Only by the Night (2008)
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] For a start it's mellower, a lot mellower; hard to believe that it's only being five years since Youth and Young Manhood, my how we've all aged...Caleb is becoming world weary and he's lugging us all down with him, like Van Morrison, it's all about him but involves us and it's maddeningly difficult to reach the core of what he's indicating but it's important and we need to know.

Review - Kings of Leon, Because of the Times (2007)
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Expectation was high, very high - this was their moment, could they shake the detractors? Still the column inches built up explaining and re-explaining the Pentecostal preacher pa called Leon and the itinerant wanderings around the Mississippi Delta - I mean come on! Enough is enough!

How to Make Indian Vegetarian Aloo Gobi
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] This is a great dish, very nutritious, in no way fattening, simple to make and cheap too! Anyone for the perfect meal then? You will require the following ingredients.

The Reality of Pete Doherty
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] When I first heard The Libertines' Up the Bracket in late 2002. I was blown away, I told anybody who would care to listen, very few did. I thought I was losing touch because I reckoned this album was the savior of music, the only show in town since the final flames of Britpop were quenched, in many ways The Libertines were the one's dousing that once mighty inferno.

The Wizardry of Harry Houdini
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Performing-Arts] Harry Houdini never escapes the public's consciousness, he remains the ultimate wizard, surviving even the modernists with their camera tricks, suave technologies and massive exposures. Old Harry is still viewed by most as the main man. He was born, Ehrich Weiss in Budapest, Hungary in 1874, migrating with his parents at the age of four.

What is a Macrobiotic Diet?
[Health-and-Fitness:Nutrition] It sounds a modern fad but macrobiotics is no passing trend, it was first mentioned in the writings of Hippocrates almost two and a half thousand years ago. He used the word macrobiotics to describe people who were healthy and lived long, indeed the word itself comes from the Greek for great life, macros equaling great and bios equaling life.

Robert F Kennedy - The People's Politican
[News-and-Society:Politics] Robert F Kennedy's speech, On the Mindless Menace of Violence, delivered on the night of 5 April, 1968 in the City Club in Cleveland, Ohio is truly a magnificent piece of rhetoric. Conveyed in the attractive, thick Boston accent with broad A's and non-existent R's; his voice remains steady, but with difficulty, suppressing the passion, fury and zeal that bubbles underneath. He was a man of his generation, emanating the spirit of the sixties, he embodied the Baby Boomer's hopes - cessation of the Vietnam War, avocation of civil rights, tackling the establishment and ridding society of the ills of violence and poverty.

New York Dolls - First Time Around
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] They didn't age well, however recently they have being experiencing something of a renaissance. Their circus never fitted well with many, dismissing them as a band of freaks with nothing much going on underneath the smeared lipstick, knee boots, high heels and mini skirts. This is simply not to know your music, the Dolls are the source of so, so much that came after them.

Review - Kings of Leon, Youth and Young Manhood (2003)
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Kings of Leon - the darlings of a media starved of any gun-slingers, sons of a preacher man, infant drifters across the Delta Blues, grizzled but pretty, sticky fingers but sweet cheekbones, nicked from Nashville and placed in pop. Are they ours? Or are they their own? Hard to tell, hard to tell. I really got to liking them, although I haven't really the foggiest what Caleb is warbling on about. Sounds good though don't it. Don't believe the hype, they weren't always like this, they didn't simply emerge shaggy and whistling Dixie, they evolved, don't we all?

How to Make the Perfect Falafel
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Oh falafel! You can't beat a good falafel, so tasty, so filling and so good for you! Try out this simple recipe but be warned falafels are very, very addictive! Throughout the Middle East you can gorge on falafel, from the street sellers to the best restaurants, you can sample countless variations, each one claiming to be the perfect falafel. The actual falafel is a fried ball made from spiced chickpeas and or/fava beans, they are usually served in pitta bread called lafa, topped with salads, vegetables and sauces.

Tell Me About Sparta
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Sparta holds a unique fascination for Western culture, we live by the ideals of Athens but we aspire to the austerity and discipline of Sparta. One of the most enduring symbols of heroism is the final stand of the three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae against the million Persians of Xerxes. Their habits and way of life have become legendary, the method of transforming their men into killing machines has being admired and lauded by many societies.

Alexander the Great
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Alexander the Great, the moniker says it all really, doesn't it? On the day he was born in July 356 BCE, Herostratus burned down the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Herostratus did so for no better reason than to become forever known, hence the Ephesians ordered that his name never be mentioned, Strabo however marked it down and so we know of Herostratic fame. But only barely, more importantly, the night it burned, Alexander the Great came into the world.

It Was Grand When it Left Belfast! What Exactly Sank the Titanic?
[Reference-and-Education] They said she was unsinkable, they said that she was the greatest ship to have ever sailed. Yet, she never even completed her maiden voyage, floundering in the icy waters of the Atlantic, four hundred miles south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.

The Man Who Wrote the Indian and Bangladeshi National Anthems
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The man is Rabindranath Tagore, the man who linked West and East. But like so many that went before him, and indeed many that came after him, he may very well have being completely overlooked by the Western world.

How a Dozen of the Most Curious Sounding American States Got Their Name
[Reference-and-Education] Twelve of the Most Curious Sounding American States and How They Got Their Names. Illinois - French explorers derived the name from Illini, an Algonquin Indian meaning, 'tribe of superior men'.

The Genius of Cezanne
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Both Matisse and Picasso thought of him as their Daddy, therefore Cezanne must really be something, if those two big cheeses cite the dude as an influence then the dude is a MAJOR influence, given that they more or less thought that everybody else was pretty hopeless.

How to Make Indian Vegetarian Biryani
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Indian vegetable Biryani is quite the tasty dish, massively popular in Indian restaurants, here's how to make your own, so you can gorge yourself nightly and not have to stomp into the town, it's quite cheaper too. You will need the following ingredients which are all fairly easy to acquire:

So Where Does Salvador Dali Fit Into the Pantheon of Art?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Old Avida Dollars, his place in the artist's pantheon is not immediately evident, indeed there are some critics who maintain that he has no place at all. That analysis seems a tad harsh, but yet it does prevail, perhaps Dali's craving for stirring the waters gets in the way of what I believe is an undeniable contribution to the world of art.

So Who is This Guy Called Hannibal? The Man Who Nearly Took Down Rome
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Hannibal is for many people the only thing of Carthage that people are familiar with, for most the great city state of Carthage is completely unknown, it is forgotten, lost in the mists of time. By the time of Hannibal's birth, Carthage had fallen on hard times. They had been defeated in the First Punic War against the Roman Republic.

Cleopatra - The Last Egyptian Pharaoh
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Cleopatra! What a life! What a woman! What a nose! Like all the greats, she is known to one and all simply by the one name. Her's was a life that was set to dominate world events in the most dramatic of fashions. I blame the parents, from the day she graced the world with her presence, she was informed that she was a goddess, she believed herself to be divine. There were going to be stormy waters ahead. She was the first of the great Divas, her modern sisters Beyonce, Britney and Mariah pale in comparison.

Homo Sapien Vs Neanderthal
[Reference-and-Education:Science] The world used to be a tad more interesting, more like Return of the Jedi than the strait-laced globe that we now inhabit where we are all the same. One hundred thousand years ago, a diverse group of hominids occupied Earth, however if you are reading this you are a Homo Sapien, the only ones that survived to the present day. The dominant theory of human movement is that there were two big advances that dispersed humans across Eurasia.

Geronimo! The Last of the Apache
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Geronimo! The most famous Indian of them all, bizarrely his name is traditionally yelled when jumping from a plane and more than one horse has being called after him. Why is he so popular? Well, he was the leader of the last American Indian force to formally capitulate to the United States and then only following a prolonged struggle in which he time and again challenged the odds and won. He was hard beaten, he was molded by hellish acts perpetuated against him.

The Rise of Benito Mussolini
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Named after the Mexican revolutionary Benito Juarez, Benito Mussolini was born in 1883 in the small town of Dovia di Predappio in northern Italy. Much of the man was molded while working the bellows in his father's forge, listening to his anarchist understanding of the world.

Guajarati Vegetarian Potato Curry
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] This is a very tasty recipe that my good friend Shetal eventually gave to me after dozens of meals and much hounding! It is from her home in Guajarati and is the finest potato curry I ever ate. It is a handy dish, which takes less than half an hour to cook and is simply oo-la-la! This version does for four but with a little tinkering you can make it for as many as you like or for as few as you like!

Whatever Happened to the Poor Old Dodo?
[Reference-and-Education:Science] The poor old Dodo, it is a symbol of how destructive us humans can be, how utterly obnoxious, vile and stupid we sometimes are. The Dodo waddled it's way around the glorious island of Mauritius for God knows how long, content and living the easy life. We know that it was a flightless bird, its stumpy wings been quite incapable of lifting its plump, ungainly little body; but this was a direct result of how easy its life was on the island.

When Picasso Met Matisse
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] I like Matisse, I mean I really like his paintings, so do many people, but not many as like Picasso, in fact not near as many, a fraction, a thin slice, everybody knows Picasso, he is the King of Art, Matisse dwells in the shadows, poor Matisse, if it means much, I for one prefer Matisse. Picasso grabs the headlines, his was a life of extremes in everything, he dominated and most were inhibited by him, he was The One, The maverick; whereas Matisse was immersed in the new movements of art, encouraging and helping, a teacher and so in the strangest of ways part of the system, Picasso never was, he was greater than the system.

A Biography of General Robert E. Lee
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Robert E. Lee is quite the quixotic character in American history, his should have being the brightest place in the sun, but he was a Johnny Reb and thus he dwells in the shadows of that great nation. He was one of it's greatest stars but although still an idol to many, he is perceived still as a dark star, a nemesis, an enemy of the state; it's harsh, for he was in many ways the essence of the old America, before he lost it all and was flung out of the hallowed halls.

A Brief Outline of the American Civil War
[Reference-and-Education] The American Civil War is the most defining event in American history. The twentieth century, the American century was molded by the carnage and devastation of the Civil War. It marked the end of slavery, the fading of the great Southern aristocratic families, the dawning of a new political and economic order and the beginning of big business and government.

How to Make the Tasty Indian Vegetarian Dish - Aloo Palak
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] I love this Indian vegetarian dish! It's easy to make, cheap and good for you! So, get doing it!

A Biography of Ulysses S Grant
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Ulysses S. Grant, he of the exalted name but humble background, whose earlier life provided no indication of the greatness that he would achieve. His were meek origins, the son of a leather tanner in Pleasant Point, Ohio; he was a withdrawn boy, short and skinny but with an unnatural ability with horses. His father lobbied their local US Congressman for an appointment to West Point, which was duly obtained, Grant attending in 1839. His time at West Point was an undistinguished one, he spurned academia, being only really content when he was mucking around with horses, he graduated anonymously in the middle of the class, failing to land the cavalry duty which he wanted.

Dylan Thoms - Myth Or Man?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Dylan Thomas has always being a man trapped between eras, very difficult to pin-down, far from easily definable, charmingly elusive. His origins are murky, perhaps not murky in fact but murky in attempting to ascertain his influences, in attempting to pinpoint where his Muses flock. By the age of four the young Dylan was supposed to be able to recite some Shakespeare that his father force fed him, this smacks of a fatherly blindness, perhaps bestowing the lofty ideals that had eluded him on his burgeoning alter ego.

The Top Seven Irish Dishes Ever!
[Food-and-Drink] Recipes for Irish stew run the length of your arm, there are thousands upon thousands of variations. Each household has a specific way of making this fine dish and each counters that their mother's is the best. A simple rule of thumb is hock in what vegetables are lying around, just ensure you have lamb as your meat, none of this fancy beef business that some hostelries are offering up these days. A great filler on a chilly winter's day.

Lord Byron - The Original Rock Star
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] This latter affair with Annabella as Byron called her, was to have some longevity, in fact he married her and they had a daughter Augusta Ada, and with that they separated a month later. It was a strange relationship, mostly something of a mystery, they appeared very much in love but then split up very abruptly. There were financial woes, indeed creditors were coming a knocking and arrest seemed imminent. There also exists the lingering rumour that Byron had married to cover up an incestuous relationship he was conducting with his half-sister Augusta that had produced a child but this has never being confirmed. In any case...

The Life and Times of John Keats
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] John Keats, I am not sure why but he has always struck me as being somewhat old, but of course he was never old, he died at the tender age of twenty-five. I don't know why I think that way, whether it be his worldly views or his whole of the moon visions or perhaps the way the legion of Romantics exalt him so. He was a Londoner, born in 1795 to a tavern owner, remarkably the tavern still stands, nowadays trading as Keats at the Globe.

The Legend of James Dean
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] James Dean, strange you know the name before the man, indeed many film buffs I know never even seen the movies he made and many are startled on discovering that he only starred in three movies. Yet, everyone knows James Dean, his ubiquitous image charms us from all kinds of angles, you would have to live on the moon to not recognise his face, and indeed it appears that to know him is to be seduced by him. The enigma that he is though is still somewhat of a riddle, how can one man, no matter how attractive he is...

The Life of Martin Luther
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Martin Luther is the rarest of creatures, a man who knows his own mind, speaks it and refuses to be swayed. There is something so, so logical about the man and his life; he was baptised on the Feast of St. Martin of Tours, he fulfilled his father's wishes by enrolling in law school but he dropped out almost immediately as he viewed law as symbolising uncertainty, he entered the monastery because he had made a vow on the spur of the moment that he would become a monk if he was saved from a storm - something maddeningly logical...

Seven Sacred Irish Tasks
[Travel-and-Leisure:Destination-Tips] Ireland is a land chock full of magic, superstitions, legends and cures. Here are seven of the best that you may stumble upon as you drift through the country. Some are terribly simple - once you can find them!

The Life of Malcolm X
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska on May 19, 1925. His father, Earl Little was an outspoken Baptist preacher and an avid supporter of the Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. The young Malcolm was to be moulded by his father and the terrible oppression that was inflicted upon his family.

The Life of Martin Luther King
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Martin Luther King Jr. was born on 15 January 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. Interestingly, he was named after the original Martin Luther, the initiator of the Protestant Reformation.

Seven of Ireland's Best Pubs (From a List of Millions!)
[Travel-and-Leisure:Destination-Tips] EJ Morrissey's, Abbeyleix, Co. Laois. The black doors of Morrissey's are a swirling time machine, you disappear inside to a bygone age. Scuttle into one of it's many warren like snugs and sink a few pints of the black stuff.

Your Body is Made Up of Ten Trillion of Them! What Exactly is a Cell?
[Reference-and-Education:Science] What is a cell? Good question! Mon Dieu a cell is a complex thing, unfathomable to the human mind, in fact unfathomable to the ten trillion cells that makes up the human body. What makes them all the more impossible to grasp is that they are not all the same, no far from it, there are hundreds of different types of cell.

How Come the Mighty Dinosaur Were Wiped Out by the KT Meteor, But the Lowly Toad Survived?
[Reference-and-Education:Science] How come the mighty dinosaur were wiped out by the KT Meteor but the lowly toad survived? Around sixty-five million years ago a meteor struck Earth with the almighty force of one hundred million megatons, obliterating the earth and wiping out seventy percent of the Earth's life. This apocalyptic event is termed the Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction or more commonly the K-T Event.

The Scariest Ghost of Them All - My Experiences With an Irish Banshee
[Reference-and-Education:Paranormal] Oh the Banshee, I could write a book on her or it or whatever it is. Growing up in Ireland, all children were petrified and if the truth be told a tiny bit attracted to the Banshee. It is said that she is a harbinger of doom, if her awful wails are heard, somebody in the house will die within the week, if she herself is seen the watcher themselves will die within the week.

Ireland's Most Haunted Tourist Location
[Reference-and-Education:Paranormal] You won't find St. Michan's Church in any of your run of the mill guidebooks; the place is just too scary to have trusting tourists wandering into. The place drips with history as the existing structure is built on the original site of a Viking chapel dating from the eleventh century.

The Top Ten Midland Tourist Traps in Ireland - Part Two
[Travel-and-Leisure:Destination-Tips] This Norman Castle straddling the shore of the River Shannon marks the traditional gateway to the West of Ireland, standing like a sentinel over the hustle and bustle of the Athlone Town. Enter the inner walls of the stronghold and wander back through nine centuries of history.

The History of the Earth Stuffed Into One Day
[Reference-and-Education:Science] Try to think way, way, way, way outside the box for a minute, try to squeeze the 4,500 million years of the Earth's history into a single day, twenty-four little hours. Difficult isn't it? But if you can, this is how the world has progressed - the first signs of life began creeping around just after four o'clock in the morning, it consisted of simple, single-celled organisms and that was it for the next sixteen hours!

The Most Mysterious Maritime Mystery Ever - The Marie Celeste, Part Six
[Reference-and-Education:Paranormal] The fact that the captains of the two ships, Marie Celeste and Dei Gratia were good friends has led many to speculate that they may have been in cahoots in an insurance scam. However, the profit on such an enterprise would have been very modest, too modest one would think to stage such an elaborate ruse. Some assert the theory of a storm but the weather had been favourable and even if they had hit a freak storm, why would they depart a seaworthy ship in favour of a tiny yawl and indeed take no protective gear?

The Most Mysterious Maritime Mystery Ever - The Marie Celeste, Part Five
[Reference-and-Education:Paranormal] James Winchester was appalled with the cursed ship, selling it immediately at an enormous loss. But the curse on the ship continued, it changed hands an unbelievable seventeen times in the following thirteen years. The beleaguered ship was in terrible shape when it ended up in the hands of GC Parker who deliberately wrecked it in the Caribbean Sea in an insurance fraud on 3 January 1885, thus ending the Marie Celeste's twenty-four hideous years.

The Most Mysterious Maritime Mystery Ever - The Marie Celeste, Part Four
[Reference-and-Education:Paranormal] So the Marie Celeste was in good shape and seaworthy, yet the crew had abandoned her in a hurry but there was no sign of a piracy raid, a mutiny or any kind of struggle nor was any severe weather reported. None of the crew or passengers were ever found, neither was the yawl. The mysterious ship was sailed to Gibraltar by the Chief Mate of the Dei Gratia, where an investigation was conducted by the Vice Admiralty Court.

The Most Mysterious Maritime Mystery Ever - The Marie Celeste, Part Three
[Reference-and-Education:Paranormal] On closer inspection, the event became all the more bizarre; all the ship's papers with the exception of the captain's logbook were missing; the clock was not working and the compass was smashed, in addition the sextant and the marine chronometer were missing. Compounding the mystery - there had being no attempt to weigh the anchor, roll up the canvas or tie the steering wheel - all contributing to the ship's wild drifting. Mysteriously, the peak halyard, which is used to hoist the main sail, was found tied to the ship, with the other end, terribly frayed, trailing in the ...

The Most Mysterious Maritime Mystery Ever - The Marie Celeste, Part Two
[Reference-and-Education:Paranormal] Another ship, Dei Gratia, captained by a friend of Captain Briggs of the Marie Celeste departed Staten Island, New York one week after the Marie Celeste had set sail; it was following a similar route to the Marie Celeste across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Straits of Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean. On 4 December 1861, the Dei Gratia was some six hundred miles west of the coast of Portugal when the helmsman sighted a ship about five miles off the port bow. The helmsman noticed that the vessel was lurching slightly and that her sails were scattered and torn. ...

The Most Mysterious Maritime Mystery Ever - The Marie Celeste, Part One
[Reference-and-Education:Paranormal] The Marie Celeste, (in fact, in reality it was called the Mary Celeste), is the greatest maritime mystery of all time. She was built in 1861 by Joshua Dewis in Nova Scotia, Canada and was initially named the Amazon. The Amazon was rather calamitous; her first captain died of pneumonia within a week of taking charge; his replacement struck a fishing trawler, forcing the ship to return to the shipyards for repairs where it subsequently caught fire; on it's first trans-Atlantic crossing it once again collided with another vessel.

The Albums of Bob Dylan, Part Eight
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Much of the fanfare surrounding Dylan began to dwindle, though it didn't overly concern him, his next three albums Slow Train Coming (1979), Saved (1980) and Shot of Love (1981) were of Christian Gospel music as he flaunted his new status as a Born Again Christian, follow that if you can! And if they were willing to persist they were in for a rollercoaster of a ride for the duration of the eighties. Infidels (1983) marked something of a recovery, Empire Burlesque (1985) was simply puzzling, Knocked Out Loaded (1986) is a sloppy affair while Down In the Groove (1988) ...

The Album of Bob Dylan, Part Seven
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Surely, reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated. Of course they were, he lay low for quite some time, releasing Planet Waves in 1973 which was a good record by anybody's standards bar Dylan's. The Second Coming or was it the Third?

The Albums of Bob Dylan, Part Five
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] The masterpiece that is Highway 61 Revisited (1965) was like a cannonade, Dylan had drove away from Minnesota in 1961 to re-invent himself, only four years later he was thinking it all up again, back on the Blues Highway where Robert Johnson had sold his soul to the devil. Dylan was on another planet, the record came out of no-where and would define the era, everybody else was playing catch-up, everybody else was in the Dark Ages by comparison, as Springsteen later recounted of the opening track, Like a Rolling Stone, 'it sounded like somebody had kicked open a doorway ...

The Albums of Bob Dylan, Part Four
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Musically, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan would change everything and would create clones of Dylan in bars, student haunts and coffee hang-outs for generations to come. But whatever he did - bedding Joan Baez, walking off the Ed Sullivan Show, singing at the March on Washington, added to the allure, there could be no escape. He wasn't doing himself any favours of escape by releasing the wonderful album The Times They Are a-Changing' (1964), on which he tackled head-on the raging issues of the day - poverty, racism and social change.

The Albums of Bob Dylan, Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Dylan continued to forge links whilst in the uber-cool environment of Greenwich Village, as he burrowed away in the second-hand stores and beetled away in the libraries, studying the past, rooting out rare recordings, discovering lost ballads; examining the way that songs were crafted. It would serve him well, linking the stony ballads of old with the stylish leanings of the Village. He had his finger on the pulse but he created his own zeitgeist, he was re-inventing the role of folk singer-songwriter.

The Albums of Bob Dylan, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] If that is the case, it is all the more impressive, how could somebody maintain such a dedicated following since 1962, without having major talent, simple answer, they couldn't. Criticising Dylan as simplistic, is maddeningly myopic, Dylan is an icon, in the proper meaning of the term, he is America, as Cadillac is, as Fitzgerald's Gatsby is, as Bellow's Augie March is, as Sinatra is, as Jimmy Dean is, as John Wayne is, as Coca-Cola is, as the Hollywood sign is, as Kentucky Fried Chicken is, as Wendy's is, as Tarantino is, as Wall-Mart is; the point is like him ...

The Albums of Bob Dylan, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Bob Dylan, where to begin, all the superlatives have been used; the man dominates, simply dominates, all are in awe of Old Zimmy, the Eternal Trickster. Eternally inscrutable, he is what a musician should be, known for his sound rather than his life, something that has being forgotten somewhere along the line, doused by lazy journalism, the public's juvenile fascination with artists' paltry affectations and the dumb editorial policies of the rags to feed them, indeed they even make them ravenous for it. Next week sees the release of his thirty-third studio album, Together Through Life (2009), how apt, The ...

What is in Haggis?
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] 'Have you had the haggis yet?' This is a question that visitors to Scotland's shores will hear more than once in the course of their stay; usually delivered with a wry grin and an all knowing wink. So what is haggis?

The Albums of Bruce Springsteen, Part Seven
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] The Boss was heading back Nebraska way, stirring up the ghosts of Guthrie and Steinbeck once again. It was grim, and after it's release, Springsteen disappeared, it was like the disillusionment had become too much for him, that he had become sick and tired about the lack of change. Rumours abounded that that was it for The Boss, he was retiring, we wouldn't hear from him again.

The Albums of Bruce Springsteen, Part Six
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] His target was now more micro; romantic relationships, personal entanglements, warring domesticity; all are met head on. He rallies against the promises that we make and then break, the demons that pursue us, driving us from our lofty ideals of love and commitment. And Springsteen ain't wagging fingers, he places himself at the very epicentre of the record, strikingly his own marriage was to break up in the wake of the album.

The Albums of Bruce Springsteen, Part Five
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] If Nebraska isolated him, the following album Born in the USA (1984), brought the world to his feet, it became on of the best selling albums of all time, seven of it's singles broke the US Top 10. The band embarked on what would become one of their trademark mammoth tours to promote the album. For fifteen months, the Springsteen crew roamed the globe, night after night delivering marathon sets of spell-binding intensity.

The Albums of Bruce Springsteen, Part Four
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] He completed the trilogy of albums with The River (1980), a double album tour de force with a staggering range of styles on show. If Born to Run and Darkness at the Edge of Town detailed the experiences, The River throws up what people do after the realisation of the betrayals committed against them and indeed their complicity in them. But Springsteen ain't offering a candy-coated path of redemption, no sir, rather he maps out the Dreiserian paths that are taken, the method of simply finding a way, to deal, to move forward.

The Albums of Bruce Springsteen, Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Born to Run (1975) was to change everything, although Springsteen struggled terribly in recording it. Seeing it as his last chance at achieving a commercially viable record, he strove for perfection, becoming frustrated when the sounds in his head were not being replicated in the studio, indeed he was deeply unhappy with the final product. It was released to great hype, the rumours had been building and building, a rare thing, they were justified, the record re-defined the whole thing, rock and roll that is.

The Albums of Bruce Springsteen, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Or so it appeared, but appearances can be deceiving and this one was, small-town they were but definitely not small-time, some of these New Jersey shore guys included Steve van Zandt, Vini Lopez and Vinnie Roslin, all of who would be in Springsteen's first successful band, Steel Mill and would go on to form the core of the E-Street Band. As would Asbury Park itself, Springsteen has drawn influence from the small town, right down to the present day. The decade spent in the wilderness, served him well as he honed his craft as a songwriter, musician and performer.

The Albums of Bruce Springsteen, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] The Boss is a hard one to nail down, a mega star who forges an intimate bond with his listeners; a mainstream artist who attains a street creed even amongst the snobbiest aficionados; a musician who has always being valid, being required, yet has never changed his clothes, never mind alter his image; one of the 'next Bob Dylan' brigade who succeeded in not being anything like Bob Dylan in some ways and who was perhaps the only one of the brigade to succeed.

Inside the Acid House Scene, Part Five
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Life was too heavy to be heavy when out. This is where the whole thing becomes sort of complicated, the authorities feared the movement because from the outside looking in, they perceived the powers that could collect thousands of people into remote fields must surely be doing more than just facilitating them to dance. Anybody with that power would, wouldn't they?

Inside Acid House, Part Four
[Arts-and-Entertainment] Teen pop was howling it's ridiculous chants through every speaker in the country, there was no escaping New Kids on the Block and Tiffany. Lionel Ritchie and Whitney Heuston were telling us fairytales. Alternative rock was beginning to enter the mainstream, but bands like The Cure and The Smiths were still pretty isolated, shouting in from the terraces, and anyway thousands and thousands were not going to gather in a warehouse to sing along to Morrissey and Robert Smith.

Inside the Acid House Scene - Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] But as the old mantra goes, not making a decision, is in itself making a decision. The United Kingdom had been wracked for a decade under the individualist policies of the Thatcher administration. Acid house stressed the collective and offered a means of escape from a country where the wealthy were prospering whereas the masses were suffering deprivation, anomie and isolation from the main.

Inside the Acid House Scene - Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] After-hour clubbing was illegal in London and the police began cracking down on the clubs, so punters needed places to go. They began to hold events in more innocuous venues such as warehouses and disused spaces. Thus, the rave scene was born. Demand was huge and so the raves in turn became huge. They began to be run by production companies or unlicensed clubs such as Revolution in Progress and Sunrise. These massive events began to garner acres of negative newsprint criticising the hedonism, decadence and drug-taking of these events.

Inside the Acid House Scene - Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Acid House was branded by Chicago DJs who were experimenting with the Roland TB-303 electronic synthesiser-sequencer in the mid-1980s. The TB (Transistor Bass) was originally developed with guitarists in mind, to provide them with bass accompaniment for when they were practicing. The word acid was used to describe the acid, squelchy sound that the synthesiser produced.

The Albums of Bob Dylan - Part Six
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] On 29 July 1966, Bob suffered serious injuries following a motorcycle accident near his home in Woodstock, New York. He disappeared from public life, retiring behind the white picket fence with his wife and kids, the crowds attempted to seek out their saviour, but Dylan had being trying to escape the baying hordes for years, the accident cemented his resolve, he refused to tour for eight years, once again he was going to do things his way. Of course he continued to create, John Wesley Harding (1967) was a pared down, contemplative effort; informing the masses that he was not ...

Confessions of a Smiths Fan, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Morrissey had adored the New York Dolls, macho wasn't going to cut it, the single garnered a cult following, were they really listening? The cads in the hallowed towers chanted pedophilia, oh please, throw enough mud and all, is it? This Charming Man the follow-up single, broke the charts, were The Smiths happy?

Confessions of a Curehead, Part Seven
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] The Top (1984), although their least performed album, was a definitive turning point for the band and was a Top Ten hit in the UK. They embarked on a world tour to promote the album, the new line-up featuring Smith, Tolhurst, a retuning Porl Thompson (last seen with The Cure pre-Three Imaginary Boys), Andy Anderson on drums and producer turned bassist Phil Tornalley. The tour was markedly different from previous The Cure efforts, they even found time to record their first live album, Concert.

Confessions of a Curehead, Part Six
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] The 1982 single Let's Go To Bed, which was the complete opposite of what The Cure had stood for, surprisingly therefore (or perhaps unsurprisingly) it was a minor hit, despite the fact that Smith had publicly derided and ridiculed the song. Despite it's relative success, Smith appeared still disinterested, abandoning The Cure or at least abandoning Tolhurst who was the only other member left, and re-joining The Banshees.

Confessions of a Curehead, Part Five
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Pornography (1982) was a masterpiece, true, but that did not matter a jot to the band at the time. Dwelling in a suspended reality with detractors on all sides they faced the torment of a world tour to promote the album which was called the Fourteen Explicit Moments Tour. It was far from pleasant, the band crawled further into their tiny triangle, painting their faces white, their eyes red, which had the grotesque effect when the heat was on that they appeared to be weeping blood.

Confessions of a Curehead, Part Four
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] The band made it back to Britain after the Faith tour, tattered and battered. Audiences had not reacted well to the quasi-religious, sombre, morbid gigs. The band were on a downward spiral and flying headlong into a deepening depression. However, Robert Smith was still persisting to fulfill his austere vision, stating that the new album would be called Pornography, hardly the sunny escape route that the band needed. Smith was in an abysmal state, a wreck, he was incapable of expressing his ideas to the rest of the band.

Confesssions of a Curehead, Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] The second single Boy's Don't Cry, was released in June but rather surprisingly, even after it was universally praised by critics, it failed to capture the public's attention to any great extent. In September 1978, the band embarked on a nationwide tour with Siouxsie and The Banshees, it was to prove to be a monumental turning point for The Cure.

Confessions of a Curehead, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Working now as just a trio - Robert Smith, Lol Tolhurst and Michael Dempsey recorded sessions at Chesnut Studios in Sussex and sent the demo tapes off to all the major labels. What a first effort it was! containing the tracks Boys Don't Cry, Fire in Cairo, It's Not You and 10.15.

Confessions of a Curehead, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Robert Smith turns fifty this month, yes, that's how old we're all getting. King Curehead clocks the half century, happy birthday Bobby-boy, ya made it. Back in the late 1970s it didn't look that way, did it? In fact, you wouldn't have put all your pennies on the whole Gothic Rock genre lasting to blow the fifty candles.

Confessions of a Smiths Fan, Part Seven
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] But all was far from rosy; suspicions were verified when Marr left the band in June 1987 and from what we thought we knew about these fellows, there would be no going back, there would be no emotional reunion of hugs and kisses. It was over, Smithmania had bitten the dust. The general statement issued was that Morrissey had become sick and tired of Marr's dalliances with other bands, while Marr was sick and tired of Morrissey's musical inflexibilities. Battle lines were drawn, the ice age cometh.

Confessions of a Smiths Fan, Part Six
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] On the Queen Is Dead record, Morrissey appeared to be accepting that much of the criticism levelled at him during the previous months. Though perhaps not justified, it was okay and he accepted them. It wasn't the end of the world, The Smiths were still producing music of the finest calibre and he wasn't so serious as everybody accused. It was good while the album lasted but alas all was far from well, the wheels were indeed coming off.

Confessions of a Curehead, Part Ten
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Wish (1992) was to be the band's major commercial peak, as the band chopped and changed with Thompson and Williams leaving, Roger O'Donnell returning and Jason Cooper being drafted in on drums. The following album, Wild Mood Swings (1996) received poor reviews, perhaps because Smith seemed happier than ever, or perhaps the hardened Cureheads just simply couldn't take the unbridled joy of the vanilla pop, strawberry happy single, Mint Car.

Confessions of a Smiths Fan, Part Five
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Following the release of Meat is Murder (1985), the band embarked on a lengthy tour of the UK and the US. On their return they began working on their third album proper but a legal dispute with Rough Trade Records led to a delay in its release. Somewhere in the midst of all this, the inevitable cracks began to appear, The Smiths were susceptible to the smaller picture after all.

Confessions of a Curehead, Part Nine
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Disintegration (1989) was perhaps a reminder to all recent Cureheads of what the band were really about. Many had come aboard following the massive selling The Head on the Door (1985) and Kiss me, Kiss me, Kiss me (1987) - halcyon days for hardened veterans of the band.

Confessions of a Smiths Fan, Part Four
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] The Smiths were taking over the youth, the synth brigade with all their flash clothes, flash videos, flash, flash, flash, could all just flash off, we had one, that's all we needed - just one to be candid. And Morrissey was fanning it, he was what we always wanted our pop stars to be, not a phony, he was doing what we would do if we found ourselves in such an exalted position. But would we do what he was doing? probably not, we would metamorphose into a bloody New Romantic.

Confessions of a Smiths Fan, Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Through the rest of 1984, they released a series of singles that were not contained on the album, they were to be some of their most enduring songs. All of these singles, B-sides and different versions of songs were gathered on the end of year compilation album Hatful of Hollow (1984).

Confessions of a Smiths Fan, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Steven Patrick Morrissey and John Maher formed The Smiths in 1982. Steven wanted to be known as Morrissey and John as Johnny Marr (to avoid confusion with The Buzzcock's drummer who was his namesake) and so Morrissey and Marr, one of the most famous duos in pop music was born. They were joined by Marr's school-friend Andy Rourke on bass and Mike Joyce on drums; deciding on the name The Smiths, the simplistic brand, a direct reaction to the over use of complicated, arty band names.

The Extraordinary Life of Nelson Mandela, Part Six
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Extraordinarily, the only thing that the prisoners had to keep them going and give them hope was football and the Makana Football Association. The Association set up a football league consisting of teams made up by the prisoners with the teams divided by their political affiliation. It created solidarity amongst the prisoners and indeed it proved to them that they could together run a federation under the harshest, most oppressive of regimes.

The Extraordinary Life of Nelson Mandela, Part Five
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] In 1961, Mandela became leader of the ANC'S armed wing, Umknonto we Sizwe (MK) and began to co-ordinate sabotage campaigns against military and government targets, he also organised paramilitary training and fund raised for the movement. As a result of these activities, Mandela was forced to go on the run, adapting many disguises to evade capture. Working on a tip-off from the CIA, the South African authorities finally managed to locate him, he was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison.

The Extraordinary Life of Nelson Mandela, Part Four
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Mandela's role was to travel the country to organise resistance to discriminatory legislation, he was arrested, charged and convicted of contravening the Suppression of Communism Act, he was given a suspended sentence. In addition, he was prohibited from attending gatherings and was restricted to the confines of Johannesburg for six months. During his confinement to the capital, Mandela along with Oliver Tambo opened a law practice, in which they represented thousands of people who were subjected to horrific treatment by the apartheid government, offering low cost legal counsel.

The Extraordinary Life of Nelson Mandela, Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Under the leadership of Anton Lembede, the younger members like Nelson Mandela began the formidable task of transforming the African National Congress (ANC) into a mass movement by expanding it's membership to include the millions of illiterate working people in the towns and countryside of South Africa. They formed the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), Nelson Mandela proved to be a highly efficient organiser and tireless worker and was soon elected to the Secretaryship of the Youth League in 1947.

The Extraordinary Life of Nelson Mandela, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] So, how was he so prevalent? Why was he cared about so much? How does his star still shine?

The Extraordinary Life of Nelson Mandela, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Nelson Mandela, the man has always existed. Even when locked away in a lonely cell on the rocky, battered and forgotten Robin Island, the world was somehow aware of this remarkable man. Personally, I cannot recall when I first became acquainted with him, he was just always there, a part of my life, like he was a part of everyone's life.

What is and Where is Timbuktu? Part Four
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The decline of the city began when European explorers and slavers began establishing bases on the West African coast, thereby providing alternatives to the slave market in Timbuktu and the trade route which had to cross the mighty Sahara. The rot was compounded by the successful capture of the city by a Moroccan army under the leadership of Pasha Mahmud ibn Zarquan in 1591. The Moroccan force plundered the city, burned the great libraries, executed many scholars and deported many more to Fez and Marrakech.

What is and Where is Timbuktu? Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Mali Empire flourished mainly due to its immense gold mines, by the beginning of the fourteenth century, Mali was the source of almost half the world's gold, it also boasted huge reserves of salt and copper. During the decades of the fifteenth century, a number of Islamic institutions were established including the mighty Sankore mosque which became known as the University of Sankore. Timbuktu became a flourishing centre of learning, culture and education; it had three universities and almost two hundred Quranic schools.

What is and Where is Timbuktu? Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Timbuktu is located exactly where the Niger River flows northward into the southern edge of the mighty Sahara. It soon became a central meeting point for the various nomadic tribes who included Songhai, Wangara, Fulani, Tuareg and Arabs. The settlement began to grow and traders from both further north and further south began to make their way to Timbuktu to do business.

Where is and What is Timbuktu? Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] From here to Timbuktu is a well worn saying, I have heard it so many times, in so many different places. Indeed, I recall it as one of the first exotic words that my tongue ever found it's way around, on a wintry morning in a cold national school classroom in the depths of the bitter midlands of Ireland.

Foynes, Ireland and the First Transatlantic Flights
[Travel-and-Leisure:Airline-Travel] Foynes is a small unassuming hamlet, inhabited by less than seven hundred souls, nestled on the southern bank of the Shannon Estuary in Co. Limerick, Ireland. However, during the turbulent years of World War II, Foynes became the focal point of the aviation world.

Who is Colonel Gaddafi? Part Five
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] It took the intercession of South African President Nelson Mandela and UN Secretary Kofi Annan, for Gaddafi to agree to a compromise, he handed over the two suspects to the Netherlands to face trial under Scottish law. One of the men was acquitted but the other Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi's was convicted which subsequently led to Libya writing to the families of the victims and officially accepting responsibility and agreed to pay compensation of $2.7 billion to the families.

Who is Colonel Gaddafi? Part Four
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] When Egypt signed peace agreements with Israel in 1979, Libya sought to ally itself closer with the Soviet Union but rather bizarrely even relations between these two remained fairly cool. Desperate for friends, Gaddafi sought to spread Libyan influence in states with sizeable Islamic populations, called for the creation of a Saharan Islamic state and supported anti-government forces in sub-Saharan Africa.

Who is Colonel Gaddafi? Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Gaddafi stated to the Libyan population and to the wider world that he was creating a direct democracy governed by the people through local popular councils and communes but in reality, the power lay solely with Gaddafi, aided by a small band of trusted advisors. However, Gaddafi insisted that he was implementing democracy in what he coined as Jamahiriya, which could be loosely derived as power for the people by the people.

Who is Colonel Gadaffi? Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] On 1 September, 1969 he led a small group of officers in a bloody coup d'etat against the reigning King Idris I who was on medical retreat on a Greek resort at the time. Gaddafi's rebels abolished the monarchy and established the new Libyan Arab Republic, in which a Revolutionary Command Council ruled the country with Gaddafi as chairman.

Who is Colonel Gaddafi? Part One
[News-and-Society:Military] Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi was born into a Bedouin family in the desert area of Sirte in Libya on 7 June 1942. He received a traditional religious primary education before attending a preparatory school in the nearby town of Sebha where he became strongly influenced by the pan-Arab nationalism being espoused by the Egyptian leader, President Gemal Abdel-Nasser.

An Introduction to Plato - Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Philosophy] The Apology offers a description of the philosophical life of Socrates in the way that he presented it before the Athenian jury during his defence. Crito was compiled during the imprisonment of Socrates to debate whether an individual citizen is ever justified in refusing to obey the state. As the Dialogues progress, the style of them changes, with the Middle Dialogues still using Socrates but possessing more of Plato's conclusions on philosophical points.

An Introduction to Plato - Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Philosophy] Plato - the dude is a legend, pure and simple. It's unreal what he achieved and what he left for us. He was born almost two thousand four hundred years ago and we still ponder stuff that he spoke - stupendous, I think you'll agree.

The Literary Genius of William Faulkner - Part Five
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The following year, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, Faulkner had taken his place among the greatest writers to ever have written. His acceptance speech was muffled and low, typical of Faulkner's shyness but when it was published the following day, it was hailed for it's eloquence and brilliance, often being hailed as the greatest Nobel acceptance speech ever delivered.

The Literary Genius of William Faulkner - Part Four
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Absalom, Absalom! (1936), returned to familiar territory, as the narrative is mainly driven by Quentin Compson of The Sound and the Fury, describing the rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen. Once again, Faulkner does not shirk from criticising elements of the Deep South, this time tackling the morals and ethics of slavery.

The Literary Genius of William Faulkner, Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Relative fame and commercial success came with his fifth novel Sanctuary (1931), although unfortunately his publishing house became bankrupt, failing pay Faulkner's due royalties. The novel was met with some disdain which was mainly due to Faulkner's public admittance that the novel was written purely to make money and for that he was disgusted with himself. Perhaps he was, the novel disgusts us the reader but only for it's content, the novel is in a word, excellent.

The Literary Genius of William Faulkner - Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Indeed the time in Sartoris is a cyclical thing with the past constantly being pored over and endlessly being interpreted. Within the same year, Faulkner had finished his The Sound and the Fury in which he abandoned all courtesy to the logical progression of time.

The Literary Genius of William Faulkner - Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Faulkner, Faulkner, Faulkner - the bane of droves and droves of undergraduates lives, desperately attempting to decipher his exquisite works, his novels being far from easily accessible, they are deeply layered and initially appear completely chaotic. All novelists rely on their imagination, they take from it, think about what goes on in there, form letters around the ideas which are derived and place the words on paper..

The Literary Genius of F Scott Fitzgerald - Part Six
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] He and Zelda returned to the United States in 1927, he moving to Hollywood to write for the movies, a job which he found revolting and demeaning for a true literary giant. Tender is the Night was put on the backburner with Fitzgerald mired in Hollywood, involved in a passionate affair with a beautiful young actress named Lois Moran and dealing with Zelda who was beginning her sad descent into madness. With nothing working out, the Fitzgeralds moved back to Europe but their misfortune followed them, Zelda being institutionalised in Switzerland and Fitzgerald returning to America on his own.

The Literary Genius of F Scott Fitzgerald - Part Five
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] On the surface The Great Gatsby appeared pretty straight forward but underneath it possesses wild, thrashing themes dealing with the unwinding 1920s and the utter disintegration of the American dream. Idealism withered as everybody became distracted by the pursuit of folly and pleasure.

The Literary Genius of F Scott Fitzgerald - Part Four
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] It is true that Zelda was not the most steadying influence in Fitzgerald's life but it would be a fallacy to depict it in such a way as to suggest that Fitzgerald's demise was completely related to Zelda. Fitzgerald was well capable of destroying the greatness of Fitzgerald all by himself.

The Literary Genius of F Scott Fitzgerald - Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] F Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda were simply outrageous, throwing wild parties, riding the roof tops of cabs and driving the stuffy theatrical set crazy with their antics. They were married on 3 April 1920 and moved to Westport Connecticut where they disgraced the affluent, conservative town with their wild parties. Their daughter and only child, Frances Scott 'Scottie' Fitzgerald was born on 26 October 1921.

The Literary Genius of F Scott Fitzgerald - Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] F Scott Fitzgerald had managed to find away to Princeton after he excelled at a prep school in Hackensack, New Jersey, which he was able to attend after receiving a modest inheritance from his grandfather and passed the entrance exams into Princeton. He was poor however and surrounded by the wealthy, it gave him an angle, as he always thought himself inferior in a social capacity which granted him the view of looking in and it helped his writings massively. He was a dosser academically, immersing himself in all that Princeton had to offer except what many would have perceived as the most important facet, that which was going on in the classrooms.

The Literary Genius of F Scott Fitzgerald - Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] On many of the world's lists of the best books ever written in the twentieth century, F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is admirably almost always second, painfully always pipped by the old genius of Joyce's Ulysses, forever in the ascendancy. Still, I suppose second greatest writer to have ever put pen to paper is not too bad an accolade to have bestowed upon you by generations of avid bookworms.

Who Was Aristotle? Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Philosophy] Aristotle was taught by Plato who was in turn taught by Socrates and what a trinity they were, between them they founded Western philosophy - outstanding chaps! Aristotle's output is truly mind-boggling, all the more so when you consider that only around a third of his works survive.

A History of American Involvement in Europe - Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The writing was on the wall and the Central Powers capitulated and sought an armistice in October 1918. Peace negotiations were based on Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, he was forced to compromise but he remained steadfast in his resolve for self-determination and the League of Nations.

What Happened in Rwanda? Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] In December 1963, following an abortive invasion by Tutsi refugees from Burundi, a massive crackdown was launched against the resident Tutsi population which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 12,000. Tutsis began fleeing in their tens of thousands into the neighbouring states of Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania and the Congo.

What Happened in Rwanda? Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Belgium were adamant that the colony would turn a profit, forcing each farmer to plant coffee and installing draconian measures to ensure that it was done, they were assisted in implementing this policy by their Tutsi allies. This alliance had the effect of solidifying the already existing racial divide between the Hutus and Tutsis and it was further exacerbated after eugenic researchers began to produce papers stating that Tutsis had Caucasian heritage and were thus superior to Hutus. Each citizen was issued with an identity card which defined them as legally Hutu or Tutsi.

What Happened in Rwanda? Part Four
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Tragically, it worked and arguably the worst genocide in the history of the world was conducted in Rwanda from April to July 1994 with over 800,000 people being murdered. Hordes of the Interahamwe militia and rebels named the Inkotanyi roamed the country massacring Tutsis and anyone who sympathised with them. There was a RPF battalion stationed in the capital Kigali under the agreements reached at Arusha, they fought their way out of the city and linked up with RPF units in the north. Paul Kagame, the RPF leader organised forces from Tanzania and Uganda to invade the country.

The Start of Tom Cruise
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Cruise is a New York boy, born in Syracuse in 1962 as the rather more regally presumptuous Thomas Cruise Mapother IV. Early life wasn't too easy for the young Cruise, his early morning newspaper delivery job was to put food on the table rather than simply to earn a little extra pocket money. His parents split up and the young Cruise moved relentlessly across the States with his mother and sister, rather amazingly, he attended eight elementary schools and three high schools.

A History of Australia, Part Five
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The boom time came to an abrupt halt with the Great Crash of 1891 with all the colonies subsequently entering a decade long depression. The unions and the parliaments entered into a caustic battle leading the unions to form their own political parties which were the forerunners of the Australian Labor Party. These developments led to a increasing radicalism and nationalism with escalating calls for Australian independence.

A History of Australia, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Australia - bizarre when you think that until the early seventeenth century, the world knew nothing of this vast country. It simply slumbered away at the bottom of the world, staying out of the world's great and terrible endeavours.

What Happened in Rwanda? Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Hutu were some of the earliest inhabitants of Rwanda, after the arrival of the Tutsi around the sixteenth century, the Hutu were forced into servitude in a Tutsi-dominated feudal state. Rwanda was one of the last places in Africa to be swallowed up by the European powers during the Scramble for Africa. The Europeans found a state that was divided between Tutsis and Hutus, the divide was described as one of class, where the Tutsis as herders were the upper class and the Hutus as farmers were the lower class.

Mobutu of Zaire, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Mobutu returned to Congo just before independence was declared, an event which threw the country into chaos. A coalition government was formed under Lumumba but there were dozens of political parties left out who believed that they had a right to power.

Mobutu of Zaire, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Mobutu Sese Soko was born Joseph-Desire Mobutu on 14 October 1930 in Belgian Congo, the son of a cook and a domestic servant. His mother worked for a Belgian judge, whose wife took a liking to the young Mobutu and taught him how to read and write French.

A History of Australia, Part Four
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] By 1846 there were four separate colonies - New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, five if you include New Zealand. Each colony was governed by a British Governor which was appointed by the British monarch with most of the administration been controlled by the military.

A History of Australia, Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Captain James Cook is often incorrectly credited with the discovery of Australia but he did not sight it until 1770, almost two hundred years after Janszoon but he still claimed the east coast for Britain naming it New South Wales. Following the loss of their American colonies after the American War of Independence, Britain required somewhere to put their glut of convicts which their overcrowded prisons could no longer accommodate. Sydney Cove was chosen as a suitable place, when a fleet loaded with convicts landed there on 26 January 1788, a date now celebrated as Australia Day.

A History of Australia, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Aboriginal women armed with digging sticks and dilly bags dug for yams and edible roots and collected fruits, berries, seeds, vegetables and insects. They also used their digging sticks to kill small lizards and other small creatures.

A History of American Involvement in Europe, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] America made tremendous economic advances after the devastating ravages of the Civil War. An industrial revolution expanded throughout America, fed by waves and waves of immigrants who poured into the country in the nineteenth century.

A History of American Involvement in Europe - Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] However, the horrors of the World War One became unavoidable and pressure was mounted by the Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish communities in America whose countries were being devastated by the Triple Entente. Still America remained isolated, neither side managing to persuade them to join their cause but if they were going to sign up it was always going to be on the side of the Triple Entente, no question.

The Film Career of Roman Polanski - Part Four
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Tess (1979) received several Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, and once again Polanski's star appeared undimmed. However, he then disappeared from the film game for seven years and when he did return it was with the critical and commercial disaster that was Pirates (1986).

The Film Career of Roman Polanski - Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] After the great success of Rosemary's Baby (1968), a terrible tragedy was to befall Polanski's life when on 9 August 1969, his wife Sharon who was eight months pregnant with their first child was brutally murdered along with four other people by members of Charles Manson's cult 'The Family'. Polanski, absolutely devastated, gave away all his possessions and returned to Europe, broken-hearted. He made two movies, Macbeth (1971) and What?

The Film Career of Roman Polanski - Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] After making Knife on the Water (1962) Polanski moved to England where he made three films in succession based on original scripts written by him and his regular collaborator Gerard Brach. Polanski landed in London slap bang in the middle of Beatlemania and the swinging sixties.

The Film Career of Roman Polanski - Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933 to a Polish father and to a Russian mother, when he was four, the family moved to Krakow in Poland. They were living there in 1939 when World War II broke out, the Polanskis were forced into the Krakow ghetto with thousands of other Polish Jews by the Nazi invaders. Tragically, his parents were eventually sent to the concentration camps, his father survived but his mother was murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The Origins of Surfing
[Recreation-and-Sports:Surfing] The origins of surfing is at best vague, it was first observed by Europeans in 1767 when Cook's expedition sailed into Tahiti. It was a key part of Polynesian culture with the chiefs being the most skilled surfers in the community and the best beaches being reserved for use by the more privileged classes.

What Exactly is Protein?
[Health-and-Fitness] Protein - what a curious and remarkable entity they are! It is an essential nutrient for our bodies as it builds muscles and bones and provides us with energy. But not many people know that proteins are even far more reaching for our welfare, we eat them yes but they well, also they are us, that is they are part of our make up.

Mobutu of Zaire - Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Mobutu dealt with any resistance or criticism with an iron fist, publicly executing any rivals, plotters or challengers. He also used bribery, giving huge amounts of cash to keep his rivals content, he also constantly rotated people from position to position to ensure that nobody could attempt to build a power base.

The Haunted Hell Fire Club
[Reference-and-Education:Paranormal] The Hell Fire Club, I remember first hearing of this hellish but curiously alluring building as a small child lost in the mountains of Wicklow on a gloomy, foggy and bitterly cold night. May I hasten to add that I was safely tucked away in the back of a warm car with my sleeping siblings whilst my father regaled my mother of the hell-raising escapades of the Club's colourful members.

What Exactly is Nutrition?
[Health-and-Fitness:Nutrition] There are five classes of nutrients - carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals. Nutrition is the name given to the series of processes by which the body consumes nutrients and makes use of them for its survival.

What is the Human Genome? Part Three
[Reference-and-Education:Science] Our DNA is 99.9 per cent the same, the Snip creates that 0.01 percent difference, luckily creating the beauty that there is a separate human genome for every one of us on the planet. It was believed for quite some time that the human body had over one hundred thousand genes but the results of the Human Genome Project reckoned the figure was more realistically less than thirty thousand.

Captain James Cook and the Hunt For Australia, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Cook quickly rose through the ranks obtaining the rank of Master which was the highest non-commissioned rank achievable. It was as a Master that he produced his highly valuable maps during the Siege of Quebec that first brought him to the attention of the British Admiralty.

What is the Human Genome? Part Two
[Reference-and-Education:Science] A gene is a short piece of DNA which instructs the body on how to build a specific protein, when you put all these genes together you get the human genome. The genome is a type of instruction manual for the body, the chromosomes can be viewed as chapters of the manual and genes as individual instructions for making proteins, the words are called codons and the letters are known as bases.

Captain James Cook and the Hunt For Australia, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] It is strange to think now, that well into the eighteenth century, Australia and New Zealand were little more than a rumour to the wider world. Ferdinand Magellan had made the first Pacific crossing in as early as 1520 but the great Ocean was still virtually uncharted.

Who is Aristotle? Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Philosophy] Aristotle viewed society as being derived from base natural need which in turn is derived from two human associations. Firstly, the association of male and female for the purpose of procreation and the association of master and natural slave for the purpose of mutual preservation.

What is the Human Genome? Part One
[Reference-and-Education:Science] Every organism, including humans, has a genome that contains all of the biological data required to build and maintain that organism. Inside a cell is a nucleus and inside each nucleus are forty-six bundles of chromosomes, twenty-three of which are from the mother of the organism and twenty-three of which are from the father of the organism.

Captain James Cook and the Hunt For Australia, Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Cook then sailed onto the south-eastern coast of Australia anchoring in Botany Bay, naming it after the rich specimens which the botanists of the expedition had gathered there. It was here that Cook's crew made first contact with an Aboriginal tribe before heading northwards as far as Possession Island, declaring the entire explored coastline as British. They returned to England via the Cape of Good Hope landing on 12 July 1771.

A History of the Cold War, Part Five
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] On 25 June 1950, the North launched a surprise attack that swiftly saw the capture of Seoul, overrunning nearly all of the South with the exception of the important port of Pusan. The UN found their hands were tied because of the Russian boycott so the vast majority of troops rallied to defend the South were American.

A History of the Cold War, Part Four
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] America swore that it was as far as communism would get, the Russians had other ideas, the scene was set for a show-down which was to be acted out in Berlin. By 1947, the Western powers had merged their zones of occupation, ended denazification, released prisoners of war, began a programme of central German government and relaxed economic restrictions on German economies.

A History of the Cold War, Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Truman Doctrine was not confined just to Europe, indeed American involvement in South-East Asia stemmed from the Doctrine. A consequence of it was the Marshall Plan which was enunciated by General George C Marshall, US Secretary of State with a view to stopping shortages of food, fuel and raw materials which he believed would make Europe an easy prey for communism.

The Philosophy of Aristotle
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Philosophy] Aristotle was taught by Plato who was in turn taught by Socrates and what a trinity they were, between them they founded Western philosophy - outstanding chaps! Aristotle's output is truly mind-boggling, all the more so when you consider that only around a third of his works survive.

A History of the EU, Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The activities of the EU are regulated by a number of institutions and bodies which carry out the polices outlined in binding treaties. The EU derives its political leadership from the European Council which consists of one representative per member state, either its head of state or head of government plus the President of the Commission with each member states' representative being assisted by it's foreign minister.

The Concept of Socialism, Part Two
[Reference-and-Education] The thesis is the original state of something which gives rise to the opposite, the antithesis; the contradiction between the two leads to a synthesis. The dialectic process powered by the class struggle is the driving force between the transition from one historical epoch to another. Following this argument, the contradictions in feudalism lead to it being replaced by capitalism, which in turn will be replaced by socialism.

The Concept of Socialism, Part One
[Reference-and-Education] From 1870, European governments were becoming increasingly anxious at what they perceived as the growing threat of socialism and working class movements. Reasons for this fear derived from the myth and example of the 1871 Paris Commune, the growth in International Working Men's Associations, universal suffrage and the growth of an industrial workforce.

A History of the EU, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] 2004 witnessed the biggest enlargement of the EU with ten new members joining - Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. On 1 January 2007, Romania and Bulgaria joined the Union and in December of that year leaders signed the Lisbon Treaty which was intended to replace the earlier, failed European Constitution which never came into force as it was rejected by French and Dutch voters. However, Ireland rejected the Lisbon Treaty in June 2008 which makes it's future quite uncertain.

A History of the EU, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The abject horrors of World War II, the second war to have torn the continent of Europe apart in the first half of the twentieth century made people realise that ardent forms of nationalism would continue to contribute to devastating conflicts in Europe and that something would have to be done. The first step to what would eventually become a Federation of Europe was the European Coal and Steel Community which was created in 1951.

A History of the Cold War, Part Six
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] This had the effect of disgracing the supposedly socialist showpiece of East Berlin and clearing it of vast numbers of skilled personnel. Reacting to this, the East German army closed all crossings from East Berlin to the West on 13 August 1961 and in subsequent weeks erected the now infamous Berlin wall.

What Exactly Happens When We Sneeze?
[Reference-and-Education:Science] Sneezing is a defensive mechanism that the body does in order to rid the respiratory tract from irritant materials. The explosive exhalation that occurs during a sneeze serves to clear the upper airway.

David Bowie - Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Rumours abounded that he had immersed himself so fully in the character that it was either now or never, kill Ziggy Stardust off or be swallowed entirely by Ziggy Stardust. Diamond Dogs (1974) gave Bowie his American breakthrough and he decided to relocate to the States.

David Bowie, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] David Bowie - chameleon like, has reinvented himself, again and again and again. He has survived to be still relevant today, one of the few stars of the sixties to not fall into becoming a self tribute or unashamedly prostituting themselves to the newest fad or indeed simply fading into obscurity.

The Beginnings of Colonialism
[Reference-and-Education] The first half of the nineteenth century witnessed the growth of Europe's economic and military superiority over the rest of the world. Although, since the late fifteenth century parts of the world had been controlled by the various European powers. But from 1870 there commenced a race for colonies on an unprecedented scale

The Kinks
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Ray and Dave Davies were only teenagers when their R&B group, The Ravens were signed by Shel Talmy of Pye Records who changed their name to The Kinks. Talmy successfully captured the raw, youthful energy of the group in You Really Got Me (1964) which topped the UK charts and stormed the US charts. It and it's follow-up All Day and All of the Night featured the compellingly curious vocal style of Ray and the amp-slashed, first heavy rock riffs of Dave, here definitely was a band with a difference.

A History of the Cold War, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] This process was repeated in other Eastern European countries and as the Red Army liberated Bulgaria, Rumania, Czechoslovakia and Hungary communist governments were installed. Of course another bone of contention was what to do with Germany, the Allies could not agree over this issue, showing a tremendous lack of trust in one another.

A History of the Cold War, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Russia and the West had harboured mutual suspicions of one another since before the Bolshevik revolution. Russia had aggressively sought territory from European states during the long demise of the Ottoman Empire.

The Origins of Fast Food, Part One
[Food-and-Drink] Fast Food - love it or hate it, it's impossible to avoid, on many occasions it may be the only option. It's mighty flagships - McDonalds, KFC and Burger King are dotted throughout the globe, their symbols are easily recognised by practically every culture in the world.

Who Are the Grateful Dead?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] The Grateful Dead are legendary, more of a symbol than a band, indeed the majority of people know the brand more than the music, are more familiar with Jerry Garcia & Co.'s antics than with the albums. They were the most famous, most celebrated, most mischievous of hippie bands and indeed, they stuck around the longest.

A History of the Boer War, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Subsequently, a small force of 470 men led by Dr. Jameson invaded the Transvaal but the Uitlander revolt failed to materialise and the small force was decimated. However, Chamberlain continued to support the Uitlanders and when Kruger refused Chamberlain's requests for improvements, the British popular press began a campaign to prepare the public for war to liberate the Uitlanders. Of course, the immense wealth of the region made the British all the more determined to add the territory to their empire.

The Slow Death of the Ottoman Empire, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Eastern Question was the collective term for the problems raised in south-eastern Europe by the weakness of the Ottoman Turkish Empire and the rivalry of its successors. At the peak of the Ottoman Empire, it stretched from the Persian Gulf to the gates of Vienna, Austria but by 1870 it was commonly referred to as the 'sick man of Europe'.

A History of the Boer War, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] During the seventeenth century a mixture of Dutch, German and French Calvinists emigrated to South Africa to farm and worship in the manner in which they wished. The word Boer originally meant farmer.

The Slow Decline of Ottoman Empire, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Great Powers gathered in Berlin, drawing up a memorandum in which they renewed their initial demands and threatened action if improvements were not forthcoming. However, because of British fears of Russia's intentions they refused to sign the Berlin Memorandum which encouraged the Turks to increase their repressive measures.

The Slow Death of the Ottoman Empire, Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] However, the Bulgarians proved to be anti-Russian and the country contrary to Britain's fears did not become a Russian satellite. In fact, they sided closer to Britain and France fuelling expectation that Russia would invade to right the wrong but this was prevented by the Dual Alliance which stated that the Germans would come to the aid of the Austrians who were sure to be affronted by any belligerent move by Russia against Bulgaria. The crisis also had the effect of Russia building links with France to stave off complete isolation.

A History of Lunar Landings
[Reference-and-Education:Astronomy] The Space Age began in earnest in the late 1950s, with America and the Soviet Union locked in the Cold War. A space race began between the two, it was a way of measuring each nation's scientific and technological advances in the fast paced twentieth century.

What Exactly Causes a Hangover? Part Two
[Health-and-Fitness] The biggest offenders of this are red wine, bourbon, whiskey, brandy and tequila. Also, combining these different impurities can make the hangover all the more severe. Also, the carbonation in beer speeds up the absorption of alcohol, so following beer with liquor is not a great idea.

What Exactly Causes a Hangover?
[Health-and-Fitness] Hangovers are a hateful ill caused by over-drinking, great times the night before are often replaced by a range of needling symptoms. These may include a severe headache, sensitivity to loud noise and bright light, diarrhea, loss of appetite, shaking, nausea, fatigue, dehydration, inability to concentrate and anxiety.

The Byrds - What Were They About?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] American Rock had taken a back-seat to UK rock, during the first half of the 1960s, a slew of acts arrived that were to change all that, one that led the charge were The Byrds.

Doomsday Scenarios - What Are the Chances of an Asteroid Colliding With Earth? - Part One
[Reference-and-Education:Science] An asteroid slamming into the earth is regularly listed as the most probable event that will end our small time on the planet. So, how likely is it of such a calamity occurring? Thankfully, not very, asteroids do regularly collide with planet earth but they are small and are usually their entire solid mass is vaporised in the upper atmosphere.

Tokyo - A City on the Edge
[Travel-and-Leisure:Destination-Tips] Tokyo has had it's fair share of grief. Two major disasters rocked the Japanese capital during the twentieth century - the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and the Allied bombing of 1945. After World War Two, the city was completely rebuilt and showcased to the world during the 1964 Olympics.

What Exactly is the Milky Way?
[Reference-and-Education:Science] Simply put, the galaxy is the galaxy in which we live, it contains a cluster of over two hundred billion stars including our Sun and indeed our solar system. It is only one of over one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe. Our solar system is located on one of the six spiral arms of the Milky Way named Orion, if you are somewhere that has a really dark night sky and are far away from artificial light pollution you can see the Milky Way.

The Future of the World is Hydrogen - Part Two
[Reference-and-Education:Science] There are two possible sources for creating hydrogen. Firstly, it can be created by electrolysis of water, where you split water molecules to create pure hydrogen and pure oxygen. Secondly, it can be created by reforming fossil fuels - oil and natural gas both contain hydrocarbons which are molecules consisting of hydrogen and carbon.

The Future of the World is Hydrogen - Part One
[Reference-and-Education:Science] Fossil fuels are running out, there are may different timescales predicted but even by the most optimistic predictions, by the end of this century we will no longer be filling our petrol tanks at our local petrol stations. As the years roll by, we are being all the more pressed into adapting a hydrogen economy. It would be a colossal transformation of our society, in the present climate we depend for almost everything upon fossil fuels.

How Does the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Work?
[Reference-and-Education:Science] Basically, a fuel cell converts the chemicals hydrogen and oxygen into water and in the process it produces electricity. It is similar to another electrochemical device with which we are very familiar with - the battery. A battery has all of it's chemicals stored inside and it converts those chemicals into electricity, the battery eventually goes dead and it is necessary to either re-charge it or after awhile it is defunct and needs to be thrown out.

How Does the Car Engine Work?
[Automotive] First things first, the car engine is an internal combustion engine, of which there are a number of different types, including the diesel engine, petrol engine, rotary engine and two-stroke engine. The internal combustion engine runs on the basic premise of injecting a tiny amount of high energy fuel, for example petrol or diesel, in a small enclosed space, igniting it and creating a massive amount of energy in the form of an expanding gas.

Why Are Diamonds So Precious?
[Reference-and-Education:Science] Diamonds are forever, these precious stones are the cause of great happiness and indeed great unhappiness but why do they hold such a fascination over us? Well for starters, diamonds are the only gem besides graphite that are made from a single element. A diamond is completely made of carbon atoms crystallised in a cubic arrangement.

Doomsday Scenarios - What Are the Chances of an Asteroid Colliding With Earth?
[Reference-and-Education:Science] Initially, scientists proposed nuking the impending asteroid by sending up a nuclear warhead, however our missiles are not designed for space, they cannot escape the earth's gravitational pull and even if they could manage it, there are no systems in place to manage our missiles across the mind-boggling expanses of space. Another method proposed was to send up a space-craft a la the movie Armageddon, to chain itself to the asteroid and use it's gravitational or thrust based influence to alter the asteroid's course. But there is a problem with this method, I don't know how Bruce Willis et.

What is an Atom? Part One
[Reference-and-Education:Science] Atoms are everything, everywhere, anything, even what we consider nothingness is atoms, made up of atoms. They are beyond minuscule, as incomprehensibly minute as infinity is incomprehensibly long.

Alfred Stroessner - The Longest Reigning Caudillo in South America
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Alfred Stroessner was the last of a rogues gallery of caudillos that included Peron of Argentina, Batista of Cuba, Somoza of Nicaragua and Pinochet of Chile. He strangled poor old Paraguay, driving the heels of his sturdy little boots on it's industry, culture and politics.

The Life of Sigmund Freud - Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] When Freud revealed his theory or his method or his drama, it was immediately seized upon and a circle of supporters began to form around Sigmund. But encouraging people that the solution of their inherent problems is in their dreams causes a massive problem, does it not?

The Life of Sigmund Freud - Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Freud is now such a part of all of our lives, but perhaps in not the way that old Siggy himself would have liked. Everyone is savvy with the term Freudian, we all know that the dude paved the way into analysing our dreams and psychoanalysis remains with us, albeit in a much more limited way.

What is an Atom? Part Two
[Reference-and-Education:Science] This was alarming to say the least, it defied the conventional physics of the day, it meant that most everything we perceive is illusory. When things clash, they don't actually touch but their negatively charged fields (the empty space) repel each other, indeed, if it were not for the positively charged nucleus, things could pass right through one another unscathed - spooky eh?

Doomsday Scenarios - What Are the Chances of an Asteroid Colliding With Earth? Part Two
[Reference-and-Education:Science] It is theorized that an asteroid entering the earth's atmosphere would compress the air underneath it, heating it quickly to over ten times the surface temperature of the Sun - anything and everything that lay under the asteroid's trajectory would be immediately obliterated. The asteroid would then slam into the earth, hurdling up hundreds of cubic kilometers of the earth, superheated gases and a shock wave, moving at the speed of light. The earth flung into the air would form into an apocalyptic, devastating barrier, moving faster than the speed of sound, therefore in total silence, devastating everything in it's ...

What is an Asteroid? - Part One
[Reference-and-Education:Science] Asteroids are also known as planetoids, they are smaller than planets but larger than meteoroids. An asteroid can be can easily be identified against a comet as it will not have a coma (a visible orbit trail).

The Life of Marshal Tito, Part Three
[News-and-Society:Politics] However, unlike the other fledgling communist countries, Tito took an independent line from Moscow, he had not relied heavily on their support during the war and therefore was confident to run things on his own terms. Tito and Stalin were to clash over many minor matters but a huge rift developed in 1948, when Tito modeled his economic plan without consulting the Soviets, resulting in Yugoslavia being thrown out of the Cominform. Tito realized that the Yugoslav strategy would have to be re-drawn to prevent a slide into capitalism.

The Life of Marshal Tito, Part Two
[News-and-Society:Politics] In 1934, he was co-opted onto the Central Committee and the Politbureau of the decimated Yugoslav Communist Party. In 1935, he returned to the Soviet Union, working for a year in the Balkan section of the Comintern.

The Life of Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia, Part One
[News-and-Society:Politics] Tito was born Josip Broz in Kumrovec, Croatia-Slavonia in 1892, which at that time was part of the Austro-Hungary Empire. He left school when he was twelve, training as an apprentice locksmith and attending night classes in geography, history and languages.

Does Anybody Out There Know What Mulholland Drive Is About?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Mulholland Drive (2001) is a surrealistic vision of Hollywood directed b y David Lynch and starring Naomi Watts and Laura Helena Harring. Lynch won the Prix de la mise en scene (Best Director Award) at the Cannes Festival and was later nominated for an Oscar for the movie.

How Did Isaac Newton Change the World?
[Reference-and-Education:Science] Newton, the great Isaac Newton, only for him, where would we be? Shanks mare perhaps? Newton's Philsosphiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, is considered to be the most influential book in the history of science.

A History of Yugoslavia, Part Five
[News-and-Society:Politics] Marshal Tito was seen as a national hero and was elected by a referendum to lead the new independent communist state. Tito dealt with the nationalist aspirations by creating a federation of six nominally equal republics - Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia while the provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina were given autonomous status. At the beginning there was a general optimism regarding the future, Communist rule restored stability and relations with the West remained good, guaranteeing loans.

A History of Yugoslavia, Part Four
[News-and-Society:Politics] Prince Paul submitted to German pressure and signed the Tripartite Treaty, it was an attempt to keep Yugoslavia out of the war but it was hugely opposed by the people, a successful coup d'etat was launched two days later and King Peter was given full powers and Yugoslavia withdrew from the Treaty. Two weeks later - Germany, Italy and Hungary invaded Yugoslavia, overrunning it within eleven days. The beleaguered country was then split up amongst the Axis powers - the Independent State of Croatia had been established in 1929 as a Nazi puppet state.

A History of Yugoslavia, Part Three
[News-and-Society:Politics] During World War One, Serbia and Montenegro were overrun by the Central Powers. In exile on Corfu, representatives of the South Slavic peoples proclaimed their proposed union under Peter I. Montenegro's last monarch, Nicholas I, was deposed in 1918 and Montenegro was united with Serbia. In December 1918, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formally proclaimed. It included Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro while the regions of Kosovo, Vojvodina and Macedonia were consumed by Serbia.

A History of Yugoslavia, Part Two
[News-and-Society:Politics] The beginning of the nineteenth century saw the burgeoning of a Pan-Slavic movement that sought Slavic unity. In the 1860s, the movement became popular in Russia, to which Pan-Slavs looked for protection from Turkish and Austro-Hungarian domination. The Balkan territories were massively re-defined by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878;

What Happened During the Bosnian War? Part Two
[News-and-Society:Military] Similarly the US remained aloof until 1994, when a new American administration under President Clinton issued an ultimatum through the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) demanding the immediate withdrawal of Serb artillery from Sarajevo, the Serbs quickly complied and a NATO imposed cease-fire in Sarajevo was declared. The US then began a diplomatic effort to unite Bosnian Muslims and Croats, but this new alliance failed to prevent continued Serb attacks against Muslim towns. Bosnian Serb forces also attacked UN peacekeepers, NATO forces retaliated by launching limited air-strikes against Serb ground forces.

A History of Yugoslavia, Part Six
[Reference-and-Education] In 1989, Serbia revoked the autonomy of Kosovo, suppressing protests by the majority Albanian population in Kosovo. Slovenia and Croatia elected non-Communist governments in 1990 and declared their independence on 25 June, 1991. The federal army, which was largely controlled by the Serbs immediately entered Slovenia, however the EU negotiated a fragile peace, although faction fighting continued in Croatia between Croatian forces and federally backed Serbs from Serb areas in Croatia.

What Happened in the Bosnian War? Part One
[News-and-Society:Military] On 29 February 1992, the multiethnic republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, constituting Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Slavs, passed a referendum for independence from Yugoslavia. However, not all Bosnian Serbs agreed with the move, although the rest of the population did, as they were trying to cede from Serbia, alarmed by the Serb leader, Slobodan Milosevic's attempts to seize control of federal government and his repressive measures in Kosovo.

The Philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Philosophy] Arthur Schopenhauer was one of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century and continues to be highly regarded and very influential in the modern fields of art, music and literature. If anything, old Arthur is accessible, you can read his stuff without having to constantly refer to the dictionary and still end up being frustratingly bamboozled. He also dealt with the inner experience of moods and feelings instead of dwelling on the more traditional subjects of history, reason and authority.

A History of Yugoslavia, Part One
[Reference-and-Education] Yugoslavia is a difficult country to pin down, follow successive maps across the twentieth century and you see it move around, becoming smaller and smaller as the decades roll by. The country was a confusing melting pot consisting of many different peoples, languages, religions, and cultures. Ancient peoples had inhabited the lands that made up Yugoslavia for thousands of millennia before the Roman Empire took control of the region in the first century CE.

The Astonishing Life of Albert Einstein, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] And hence it suggests that a huge amount of energy is bound up in every material thing. The paper also explained how radiation worked - how a lump of uranium could throw out constant streams of high-level energy without melting away - it converts mass to energy extremely efficiently.

The Astonishing Life of Albert Einstein
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] In 1905, a series of papers appeared in the German physics journal, Annalen der Physik written by a young bureaucrat named Albert Einstein. Bizarrely, Einstein was affiliated to no university, had no access to a laboratory and was limited to using the library of the National Patent Office in Bern, where he was employed as a technical assistant, his responsibility being to evaluate patent applications for electromagnetic devices.

The Life of Ezra Pound - Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] In 1922 he met and began an affair with Olga Rudge, a violinist, she would remain his mistress for the rest of his life. In Paris, he continued to work on his The Cantos which he had begun in 1915 and would continue to work on until 1962. During his time in Paris, he also wrote critical prose and translations, composed two operas and wrote pieces for the violin.

The Lynchian Life of David Lynch
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] I am sure he was happy to have done so, as the result was the mighty Blue Velvet (1986), a neo-noir classic detailing the ominous shadows that lurk behind the white picket fences of harmonious middle-class, small-town America, it garnered Lynch an Academy Award for Best Director for the second time. Continuing to examine this most Lynchian of ideas - the hidden, murky depths of small towns - Lynch collaborated with Mark Frost on the hit TV series Twin Peaks (1990-1991).

What is a Supernova?
[Reference-and-Education:Science] A supernova is the death of a giant star, one that is much bigger than our own sun and it is characterised by a massive output of energy, they are extremely luminous, the explosion expels much or all of the star's materials and for a time burns more brightly than all the stars in the galaxy.

Why Isn't Poor Old Pluto a Planet Anymore?
[Reference-and-Education:Science] Poor old Pluto, for billions of years it lay unnoticed, out there on it's own, not bothering anyone, content to spin around by it's lonesome. Then in 1930, the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona declared it as a planet.

The Lynchian Life of David Lynch
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] David Lynch is something of an all-rounder - director, screenwriter, producer, painter, cartoonist, composer, video and performance artist. He started out as a painter, enrolling in the Pennsylvanian Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia when he was nineteen.

Antonin Artaud and the Birth of the Theatre of Cruelty
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] To Antonin Artuad, theatre was not a matter of life and death, it was hell of lot more important than that. He wanted theatre to return to what it once was in primitive societies - pure magic - an event where a catharsis of the audience would take place.

Andre Breton and the Birth of Surrealism
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Andre Breton became involved with the Dadaist movement in 1916 - but even the destructiveness of the Dada's was not enough for Breton. He founded the review Literature with Louis Aragon and Philippe Soupault and his Manifeste Du Surrealisme was published in 1924.

Who Was Walt Whitman?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Walt Whitman, old Walt - the colossus, skulking in the shadows of all modern verse, hovering in the gloom, this ancient Gandalf trapper. An all-American, in the original manner that that description was supposed to refer to before it became so muddled. Indeed, generations of American writers have viewed Whitman as the original American voice, he has become something of the source with which to get to, the way to finding the 'Lost America'.

What Was the Lost Generation?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] World War One devastated everything - nothing could ever be the same again, there was no way back to what it was like before. Everybody had bought into the values of class-consciousness, the formalism of societal norms and the constraints of culture but in the end these axioms had failed humanity.

What Was the Beat Generation? Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] So what went before that inspired such originality? Well their influences were diverse - take Kerouac's spontaneous prose, well put it this way Jack liked his jazz, improvisational jazz, the bop jazz style of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

What Was the Beat Generation?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Beat Movement, The Beats, The Beat Generation - what exactly was it? Truth is I don't know and I don't think anybody else does. I mean beat generation was a moniker that Kerouac applied to his close circle of friends - it hardly defines a generation - indeed Corso saw that only three were in it - himself, Ginsberg and Orlovsky.

The Symbolist Movement
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Symbolism evolved in France in the second half of the nineteenth century as a reaction to the grim realities and hardened vision of realism and naturalism. But it was far from a lofty elevation of idealism, no, it instead sought to illustrate and exalt the overlooked banalities of everyday life. Symbolists also plunged into spirituality, imagination and dreams.

The Life of Ezra Pound, Part One
[Reference-and-Education] Ezra Pound pops up everywhere, whether it be as an influence, a precursor, a patron, a link, a facilitator, a whatever; once you read literature you come into contact with the name Ezra Pound. Curiously, coming across his work is a much more difficult endeavour. Pound is generally regarded as the poet most responsible for defining a modernist aesthetic in poetry.

A History of the Spanish Civil War, Part One
[Reference-and-Education] During the Spanish Civil War, the eyes of the whole world turned their attention to Spain as an epic medieval like battle unfolded between forces of good and evil, though depending on what side of the fence you sat, these tags could be applied to either side or indeed if you remained perhaps on the fence, on both. Though the world tolerated it, never thinking or perhaps not wishing to think that this was a practice run or more correctly a war by proxy between Soviet Russia and Fascist Germany. This dress rehearsal was a devastating, viscous plague on Spain ...

The Pop Art Movement
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Visual-Graphic-Arts] Pop Art developed slightly differently in America and Britain but in quite a curious way - American Pop artists were inspired by the burgeoning consumerist, media driven, fame obsessed culture of America whereas in Britain they were inspired by the same - but different - they were looking in at it from the safe or annoying barrier of the Atlantic. Pop Art was an affirmation of this culture not a repudiation, there was a satirical quality to it but it was far from the Dadaist destruction of artefacts of mass culture.

A History of the Mod Movement, Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Of course the Mods and Rockers clashed, the antagonism reached its peak in the summer of 1964, when hundreds of youths fought running battles with themselves and the police in the seaside resorts of Clacton, Margate, Bournemouth and Brighton. However, the media reports of the time greatly over-exaggerated the severity of these incidents causing some moral panic and vindication by the older generations that these youth movements were decadent rabble. As psychedelic rock music and the hippie subculture began to become popular in the UK, the Mod lifestyle began to peter out.

A History of the Mod Movement, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Instead of heading down to the local for a pint of bitter, the Mods met up in coffee-shops, attracted by the late opening hours and the R&B jukeboxes. The success of the Mod movement, though proved it's downfall - by the late 1950s everybody wanted a piece of the action- and so the movement became the norm, 'twas no longer underground and rebellious - it fizzled out - the teddy boys were no more. Or at least, they were no longer as one, many fell by the way-side but many got into one of the dozens of sub-cultures.

A History of the Mod Movement, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] 1950's Britain and 1950's America contrasted greatly; while there was something of a golden age occurring in the States, Britain was still reeling from the effects of World War Two. In this climate the Mods rose; teenagers rejecting the Technicolor fairytales that were been fed to them through the mediums of radio, TV and cinema. In addition they rebelled against the stuffy, repressed and class-obsessed status quo that their parents generation were sleeping through.

What is Minimalism?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Visual-Graphic-Arts] Minimalism describes movements in art and design, film, literature and music where the work is stripped down to its most basic and raw. Content and form are kept to the most simplistic possible in an attempt to remove any indication of personal expression. By paring down materials, forms and procedures; minimalists wish to arrive at the very source of art before generations of artists tampered with it.

The Art Nouveau Movement
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Visual-Graphic-Arts] Art Nouveau was an international style of architecture and decoration beginning in the 1880s and 1890s; it derived it's moniker from the Maison de l'Art Nouveau, an interior design gallery which opened in Paris in 1896. The term describes the flowing organic forms of the decorative arts which flourished in France and was heavily present in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and Holland as well as making it's way across the Atlantic to America. The movement wished to turn away from the rigid aestheticism and oppressive historicism that defined the Victorian era and embrace a new approach.

The Art Deco Movement
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Visual-Graphic-Arts] Art Deco flourished internationally in the inter-war years; predominantly in architecture but it also influenced the fine and applied arts. Art Deco was a modernisation of many artistic styles and themes from the past; it began as the Modernist follow-up style on Art Nouveau but was much more simplified and closer to mass production. The 1920's marked a progressive era in America; an era of prosperity, promise and modernity - this bold era required bold ideas.

The Vietnam War, Part Four
[News-and-Society:Military] However, in May 1970, the US began ground incursions into Cambodia; this action sparked nationwide protests on the home front culminating in the tragedy at Kent State University when four students were shot and killed by soldiers of the Ohio National Guard. The public were outraged, but the Nixon administration appeared indifferent, launching ARVN incursions into neutral Laos in early 1971 with the intention of cutting the Ho Chi Minh supply line. These incursions proved disastrous with the ARVN forces who were easily routed, retreating pell-mell, abandoning vehicles and equipment and requiring a bail-out by American airpower; the chaos clearly ...

The Vietnam War, Part Three
[News-and-Society:Military] Westmoreland launched a series of large-scale 'Search and Destroy' operations, targeting Vietcong operating bases. Vietcong units often managed to evade US incursions by retreating to sanctuaries in Cambodia and Laos, though the attacks did take their toll on Vietcong forward-supply bases. The political situation in South Vietnam began to stabilise with the coming to power of Vice-President Nguyen Cao Ky and President Nguyen Van Thieu in 1967.

The Vietnam War, Part Two
[News-and-Society:Military] In May 1959, the Lao Dung Party sanctioned an armed revolution against Saigon, thousands of insurgents began to stream down the Ho Chi Minh Trail to help form Vietcong units, this was the beginnings of the National Liberation Front. By the early 1960s, the NLF's campaign had burgeoned and was scoring defeats on the Army, Republic of Vietman (ARVN). Diem and his mafia-like family were incapable of dealing with the growing crisis and the US administration began to seek ways of removing them from the reigns of power.

The Vietnam War, Part One
[News-and-Society:Military] In January 1950, the People's Republic of China recognised the Vietminh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam as the government of Vietnam. At the same time the non-Communist nations of the world recognised the France supported State of Vietnam led by former Emperor Bao Dai. The Battle of Dien Bein Phu of 1954 marked the end of French involvement in Indo-China and the independence was granted to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia by the Geneva Accords.

A Brief History of Surrealism, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Visual-Graphic-Arts] The Surrealists wanted art to be something that you marvelled and wondered at, they searched for skewed visions of imagination. They took their inspiration from previous artists who had tampered with the normal convention, artists peccants such as - Bosch's depictions of hell, the black period of Goya and the nightmarish visions of Fuseli. They saw themselves as inheritors of the Symbolists, deriding the Impressionists as too naturalistic, too rational.

A Brief History of Surrealism, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Visual-Graphic-Arts] At the end of World War One, the Dada movement wished to attack and offend society because of the monstrosity that the world had become. Dadaists believed that a world which had done it's utmost to eat itself did not deserve fine art so they decided to give it hideousness. Bizarrely, society embraced this anti-art, they saw it as not attacking them as such but attacking the old, staid institutions such as feudalism and the Church.

The Life of Pablo Picasso - Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Visual-Graphic-Arts] Instead they wanted to emphasise the two-dimensional quality of the canvas. Figures and objects were dissected and re-assembled into hideous but compelling figures, for a while the original subject was evoked but then that small comfort was blown to kingdom come. Then Picasso exploded the whole shebang, he began pasting coloured pieces of paper on his compositions, three dimensional perspective was erased and now the real world was penetrating art.

The Life of Pablo Picasso - Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Visual-Graphic-Arts] From 1904, his work began to regain its romantic quality, the tin of blue paint had ran out and Pablo bought warmer colours and began to develop a style that would so dominate the twentieth century. He still concentrated on social misfits, concentrating on those outcasts who decide to go the whole hog, no longer bothering with any convention, where did he find such cutaways?

The Life of Pablo Picasso - Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Visual-Graphic-Arts] Picasso from the beginning had oodles of talent, rebelliousness and genius; his art- teacher father copped it from the off and nurtured the young Pablo until he surpassed him when barely in his teens. Soon after, his family moved to Barcelona, the city would forever be Picasso's real home in his heart.

Abstract Expressionism - A Brief History
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Visual-Graphic-Arts] Abstract Expressionism was a movement that originated in post World War II America, it was the first American art movement that became globally influential and it replaced Paris with New York as the centre of the art world. Abstract Expressionism does not describe one particular style but rather an attitude rooted in a need to express individuality and improvise spontaneously.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America - George Bush, the Elder, Part Two
[News-and-Society:Politics] Following his graduation in 1948, he became an oilfield supply salesman for Dresser Industries in Odessa, Texas. Bush rose quickly in an industry that was booming in the post-war years, starting his own oil company in 1953 and moving it's corporate headquarters to Houston, Texas, it made him a millionaire by the time he was forty. He ambitions became political and in 1964 he ran against the Democratic incumbent Texan Senator Ralph Yarborough.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America - Gerald Ford, Part One
[News-and-Society:Politics] Gerald Ford was born as Leslie Lynch King Jr. on 14 July, 1913 in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents split up within weeks of Gerald's birth, his mother later married Gerald Rudolff Ford, the young Gerald was raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his three half-brothers.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America, Bill Clinton - Part Four
[News-and-Society:Politics] His problems were further exacerbated when the Republicans gained control of both houses in the 1994 mid-term elections for the first time in forty years. It appeared for all intensive purposes that Clinton would be out on his ear but in the face of adversity he triumphed.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America, Bill Clinton - Part Three
[News-and-Society:Politics] Competition for the Democratic nomination was intense, Clinton was criticized for his lack of experience at federal level and his lack of knowledge on foreign affairs. Clinton, however insisted that he was a break from the elite of Washington and could bring a fresh perspective to the government.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America - George Bush the Elder, Part Four
[News-and-Society:Politics] He secured the Republican nomination for the 1988 Presidential election and chose US Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana as his running mate, they were pitted against the Dukakis/Bentsen Democratic ticket. The subsequent general election is viewed as one of the nastiest that ever took place, Bush won it on an electoral votes landslide, becoming the first Acting Vice President to be elected President. He was in office when the Communist governments in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe collapsed.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America - George Bush the Elder, Part Three
[News-and-Society:Politics] In 1976, President Ford recalled Bush from China and appointed him as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, his brief was to restore morale and transform the way the agency was perceived by the public and by Congress. When the Democrats came to power in 1977, Bush became Chairman of the Executive Committee of the First International Bank in Houston. Bush sought the Republican nomination for the 1980 Presidential campaign, exploiting the contacts he had made as Chairman of the Republican National Committee and as a prominent Texas businessman with corporate interests in the East.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America - George Bush the Elder, Part One
[News-and-Society:Politics] George Hebert Walker Bush was in Milton, Massachusetts on 12 June, 1924. His father, Prescott Bush was a managing partner in a Wall Street investment firm and was a US senator for Connecticut from 1952 to 1962. His mother Dorothy Walker Bush was the daughter of another prominent Wall Street investment banker, George Herbert Walker and the founder of the international golfer competition, the Walker Cup.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America - Richard Nixon, Part Two
[News-and-Society:Politics] During the campaign he was accused by the New York Post of accepting private donations, a claim that he strenuously denied. The Republicans won the ticket, Nixon broadened the scope of the post. In 1960, he launched his campaign for President of the United States of America.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America - Ronald Reagan, Part Three
[News-and-Society:Politics] When this rhetoric was followed by a threatened invasion of Nicaragua and an actual invasion of Grenada, North Atlantic affairs were in disarray. His foreign policies were defined by the tremendous antipathy towards the Soviet Union which he referred to as the 'evil empire'. Reagan presided over a huge military build-up, spending over 2 trillion dollars on the strengthening of the armed forces.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America - Richard Nixon, Part One
[News-and-Society:Politics] Richard Nixon was born on 9 January 1913 in Yorba Linda, Orange County, California. He won scholarships to both Harvard and Yale but due to lack of finances he was forced to decline them. He instead enrolled in a local Quaker college, Whittier College where he was a model student.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America - Ronald Reagan, Part Two
[News-and-Society:Politics] His entry into politics occurred when he made a televised speech in support of Barry Goldwater's bid for the Presidential nomination in 1964. In 1966, Reagan beat Pat Brown to become Governor of California, his electoral manifesto had included imposing ten per cent pay cuts, 'to send welfare bums back to work' and to quell the anti-war and anti-establishment student protests at Berkeley. However, once in office he found that he had to compromise his ideals - taxes actually increased, he had to accept an increase in abortion rights and he increased spending on higher education.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America - Ronald Reagan, Part One
[News-and-Society:Politics] Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois on 6 February 1911. He began his acting career while studying economics at Eureka College. He broke into show-business when he landed a gig as a sports caster at a radio station in Des Moines, Iowa.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America - Jimmy Carter, Part Two
[News-and-Society:Politics] In 1978, he organized a meeting between President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachim Begin of Israel at Camp David, resulting in the Camp David Agreement in which both parties agreed to a peace framework. Although he had successes, he was not consistent and his relationship with Congress was a caustic one, he was still seen as something of an outsider by the establishment. This coupled with his refusal to lobby, his aides being drawn mainly from Georgia and the fact that he had won on a narrow victory meant that he found it difficult to make progress.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America - Richard Nixon, Part Four
[News-and-Society:Politics] In 1977, he began to embark on a public relations comeback effort, meeting with British journalist David Frost who paid him six hundred thousand dollars for a series of sit-down interviews. The first of his ten books that he authored in his retirement was published at this time, enabling Nixon to emerge from his seclusion to embark on book tours. He later embarked on tours to Egypt, Soviet Union, Japan and China.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America - Jimmy Carter, Part One
[News-and-Society:Politics] Jimmy Carter was born into a Georgian family of several generations on 1 October 1924. In 1943 he entered the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, graduating in 1946 and being commissioned as an Ensign in the US Navy. After two years of service working on experimental radar and gunnery vessels, he switched to submarines.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America - Richard Nixon, Part Three
[News-and-Society:Politics] He approved a secret bombing campaign of Cambodia with the intention of destroying the headquarters of the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam. He followed this with implementing the Nixon doctrine, which was a strategy of replacing American troops with Vietnamese troops in Vietnam. His further bombing campaigns in Laos and Cambodia led to widespread protests at home.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America - Gerald Ford, Part Two
[News-and-Society:Politics] By the early 1970s, Gerald Ford was considering resigning from Congress, however suddenly he was nominated by President Nixon to succeed Spiro Agnew as Vice-President after Agnew's resignation. Ford was not Nixon's first choice but he was the safest, he was a popular figure in Congress and the members were content to approve one of their own. His nomination was confirmed by both chambers and he took the oath as Vice-President on 6 December 1973.

The Ex-Presidents of the United States of America - Bill Clinton, Part One
[News-and-Society:Politics] Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III in Hope, Arkansas, in 1946; his father died before he was born and he later took his stepfather's name. His childhood home was a troubled one; his stepfather, a gambler and alcoholic, was abusive to his mother and stepbrother. When Bill was fifteen, he made it clear that he would mete out violence if the abuse continued.

The Films of Pasolini
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Pasolini made the circuitous route into making films. Born a rebel, Pasolini constantly pushed the boundaries of society, testing axioms, he was first and foremost an intellectual. He studied literature and art history at the University of Bologna, moving to Casarsa after the war where he got work as a schoolteacher.

The Wrestler and the Comeback of Mickey Rourke
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] The Wrestler is a Golden-Globe Award winning feature, directed by Darren Aronofsky starring Mickey Rourke as Randy 'The Ram' Robinson, a professional wrestler from the 1980s who is way past his prime. The Wrestler won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, the festival's most prestigious award and Mickey Rourke won the Golden Globe for Best Actor with his co-star Marisa Tomei also scooping a gong at that particular award ceremony for Best Supporting Actress. The thought on everybody's mind is now will Rourke receive the Oscar and mark a come-back every bit as remarkable as the one that ...

The Love Goddess - Rita Hayworth
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Margarita Carmen Cansino, better known as Rita Hayworth was on stage from the age of six as part of the family vaudeville troupe named The Cansinos. She attracted the attention of Fox Studios and was signed by them at the tender age of sixteen. It was a lacklustre beginning as she was cast in minor roles in B-movies, however Columbia Pictures signed her in 1937, remaking her into an all American beauty and calling her Rita Hayworth.

His Divine Grace Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada - Part Two
[News-and-Society:Religion] In 1965, Swami Prabhupada set sail for America, with only eight dollars and a box of book, he was fulfilling the instruction he had received to spread Vedic teachings throughout the Western world. He founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in New York City in 1966, temples were established in New York and San Francisco, Prabhupada and his disciples traveled throughout America popularizing the movement through street chanting (sankirtana), book distribution and public speeches. Some disciples were then sent to London where they made contacts with The Beatles; George Harrison spent much time with Prabhupada and later ...

His Divine Grace Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada - Part One
[News-and-Society:Religion] His Divine Grace Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was a Hindu teacher and the founder of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, known worldwide as the Hare Krishna Movement. His mission was to spread the word of the Gaudiya Vaishnavism form of Hinduism throughout the world. He first met his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati in Calcutta in 1922.

The Feel Good Movie of 2009 - Slumdog Millionaire
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Slumdog Millionaire is a damn fine movie, set and filmed in India, it tells the story of a young man from the slums of Mumbai who lands a place in the hot seat on the worldwide phenomenon hot-show Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Director Danny Boyle manages to weave an eloquent epic that centers on how the boy acquired the knowledge to the questions that he is asked as he strives to win the top prize. The film drags us into the fabric of Indian society, illustrating to us the magic, the chaos, the horror and the beauty of ...

Terence Malick - A Great Director of Movies
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Terence Malick is no ordinary director, no sir! This guy has attended Harvard and Oxford, the latter he left after a disagreement with his advisor over his thesis on the concept of the world in Kierkegaard, Heidegger and Wittgenstein. He shuns public life, hates celebrity and has only directed six films in a forty year career.

The Film Career of Orson Welles
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] RKO pictures offered Orson Welles what is often supposed to be the greatest contract ever offered to an untried director - complete artistic control. But then again Welles was no ordinary untried director - he already had the most admirable, innovative and inspiring of theater and radio careers behind him. For his first feature he pulled Citizen Kane (1941) out of the hat, it is more often than not acclaimed as the greatest film ever made.

The Film Career of Mohsen Makhmalbaf
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Mohsen Makhmalbaf was born in Tehran, Iran in 1959. He became involved in an underground Islamic militia group, he was arrested and imprisoned when he was seventeen. He was released in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, during his four year incarceration he had an intellectual renaissance, abandoning politics in favor of art and literature, especially cinema.

A History of Italian Neo-Realist Film
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] In the early 1900s, Italian film production flourished, but after World War One, it was undermined by foreign films. Production further decreased through the 1920s, with only twelve films been made between 1927-28. However, the sparking of a revival began in the 1930s, depending mainly on escapist comedies and lavish musicals- critics sneerily referring to them as 'white telephone' movies after their use of the colorful device favored by wealthy Italians of the time.

Hunter S Thompson and the Birth of Gonzo
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Hunter S Thompson created Gonzo journalism - a style of journalistic writing that blurs the distinction between fiction and non-fiction. It is written subjectively and often includes the reporter as part of the story, via a first person narrative. Indeed, the writer is the central figure of the story, with everything circling around them with personal experiences and emotions being used to provide context for the story.

What Was Classic Film Noir?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] The aesthetic of film noir was hugely influenced by German Expressionism of the 1910s and 1920s. Many of the major contributors to film noir were immigrants from Europe, who had been directly involved in the Expressionism movement who were fleeing Nazi Germany. Another underlying influence and definitive antecedent was 1930s French poetic realism and it's romantic, fatalistic attitude and celebration of doomed heroes.

A Description of Hinduism, Part Two
[News-and-Society:Religion] Occasions such as birth, death and marriage involve an elaborate set of customs. Pilgrimages are not mandatory but many do undertake them. There are several Indian cities that are viewed as holy cities - Allahabad, Haridwar, Varanasi and Vrindavan.

The Film Career of John Cassavetes, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Shadows(1959) won the Critic's Award at the Cannes Film Festival, the award brought him to the attention of Hollywood who financed his next movies Too Late Blues (1961) and A Child is Waiting (1963). Throughout the sixties he remained pretty much in the mainstream, including acting in several ABC dramas, Robert Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen (1967) and Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968).

The Film Career of Jean-Luc Godard, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Whatever convention up until now that Godard had abided by were now completely abandoned, in addition from this point on, Godard's work would become more politicized. Throughout the remainder of the sixties, Godard's work expressed a fundamentally Marxist social critique and challenged, engaged and even lectured to his audience.

The Film Career of Jean-Luc Godard, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Jean Luc Godard does things the way he wants them, he's is own man, nobody, not even his loyal audience sways him, he makes movies his way, no other way. Cinema meant so much to Godard, he viewed the course with which it would take with horror and derision, this is the guy who debunked Spielberg as, well, not very good. An early apostle to the cine clubs that proliferated Paris in the fifties, he made contact with fellow devotees...

The Film Career of John Cassavetes, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Cassavetes is Cassavetes and no-one else, his directing style was different to whatever went before and set precedents for much of what was to follow. Cassavetes focused on characters, indeed the character was everything to him often to the detriment of narrative, plot and storyline. He shot mostly hand-held using normal lighting to accommodate the spontaneity of his actors.

A Brief Description of Hinduism, Part One
[News-and-Society:Religion] Hindu refers to the religious mainstream which evolved and spread across a large territory and is marked by significant ethnic and cultural diversity, resulting in an enormous variety of traditions within the religion from small cults to massive movements of millions of followers. Prominent beliefs in Hindu include Dharma (personal duty/ethics), Samsara (the cycle of birth, death and rebirth), Karma (action and subsequent reaction), Moksha/Nirvana (liberation from samsara), and the various Yogas (paths or practices).

The Movies of Alfred Hitchcock, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Alfred Hitchcock was born on 13 August 1899 in Leytonstone, London. He was educated at the Jesuit Classic school St Ignatius' College, Stamford Hill, London and London County Council School of Engineering, Poplar, London. After graduating he became a draftsman and advertising designer for a cable company.

The Movies of Alfred Hitchcock - Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] In 1956, he remade his own 1934 film The Man Who Knew Too Much which starred Cary Grant and Doris Day and featured the song Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera Sera) which became a massive hit for Day. Towards the end of the fifties, Hitchcock made four films in a row that were to become some of his most famous and most acclaimed - Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963). Failing health took a toll on Alfred, reducing his film production during the last two decades of his life.

The Films of Woody Allen - Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] His movies are ridden with existential angst which is constantly undermined by absurdist humour. An overriding theme of Allen's work is the gaining and losing of love and the bizarre merry-go-round that is the romance and the dating game.

The Films of Woody Allen - Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Woody Allen was born in 1935 and raised in New York City and was raised in Midwood, Brooklyn. As a teenager he began writing jokes for the agent David O Alber who sold them to newspaper columnists. He was discovered by the stand up comic Milt Kamen, who got him his first writing job with Sid Caesar.

The Life and Times of Fidel Castro - Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Fidel Castro was released after two years under a general amnesty, he departed Cuba for Mexico with the intention of reorganising and training his movement. He established the 26th of July movement, which was to concentrate on guerrilla tactics to take down the Batista regime. On 26 November, 1956, Castro with only 81 followers set sail for Cuba with the purpose of starting a rebellion.

The Life of Times of Fidel Castro - Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] In June 1960, Eisenhower reduced Cuba's sugar import quota by seven million tonnes, in response, Cuba nationalized some 850 million dollars of US property. Castro continued to nationalize industry, collectivize agriculture and expropriate property owned by Cubans and non-Cubans alike.

The Life and Times of Fidel Castro - Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born in Biran, Cuba in 1926, the son of a Galician immigrant and Cuban mother. In 1945, he began studying law in the University of Havana. He immediately became active in the volatile, fractious and even dangerous political culture at the university. In 1947, he joined the Partido Ortodoxo party of Eduardo Chibas.

The Fantastic Films of Fellini - Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] La Dolce Vita was shot beautifully, providing countless striking and lingering images, it was a worldwide success. It satirized Italian society and it's hedonist obsessions, it was condemned by the Catholic Church for it's casual treatment of suicide and it's sexual themes; the Italian government also condemned it because of it's criticisms of Italian society.

The Fantastic Films of Fellini - Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Fellini was always something of a maverick - he never formally trained nor did he ever frequent the cinema clubs that screened the work of the dominant Italian directors. He was greatly more influenced by Laurel & Hardy, Buster Keaton, Chaplin and the Marx Brothers.

A History of Arabia, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Third Saudi state was founded by King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. In 1902 Ibn Saud captured Riyadh, the Al-Saud dynasty's ancestral capital, from the rival Al-Rashid family. Continuing his conquests, Abdul Aziz subdued Al-Hasa, the rest of Nejd, and the Hejaz between 1913 and 1926.

What on Earth is Scientology?
[News-and-Society:Religion] Scientology is a body of beliefs created by American science fiction author L.Ron Hubbard, the first Scientology church was established in New Jersey in 1953. Scientology believes that people are immortal spiritual beings (thetans) which have lived many lifetimes, thetans lived among extraterrestrial cultures before being trapped in human forms on earth.

A History of Rock and Roll
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] The immediate origins of rock and roll lie in the late 1940s and early 1950s through a mixing of the genres of blues, country, R&B, folk and gospel music. Alan Freed, a disc jockey based in Cleveland, Ohio is generally credited with first using the phrase rock and roll in 1951, though the phrase was in constant use at time in lyrics of R&B songs of the time. The phrase rocking and rolling has its origins in slang for dancing or having sex.

A History of Arabia - Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Arabian Peninsula has being populated by various cultures for over 5,000 years. However, except for a few cities and oases, the hostile environment prevented much settlement of the peninsula. Islam began with Muhammad preaching at Mecca before he moved to Medina from where he united the tribes of Arabia.

A History of Punk Music
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] The first wave of punk aimed at distancing itself from the pretentiousness and posturing of 1970s rock. Punks strove to dismantle the tame acts that were now standing as pre-eminent rock and roll. Rock no longer stood for the left field, for the rebels, for the counter-culture.

A Biography of Osama Bin Laden, Part One
[News-and-Society:Politics] Osama Bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on 10 March 1957. His father, Muhammed Awad bin Laden was a billionaire businessman with close ties with the Saudi royal family. Osama was born the only son of Muhammed and his tenth wife, Hamid al-Attas, the couple divorced soon after his birth.

A History of Iran
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilisations dating from as far back as 4,000 BC. The Iranian Medes unified Iran into a kingdom in 625 BC. They were succeeded by three Iranian empires, the Achaemenids, Parthians and Sassanids which governed Iran for over a thousand years.

A Biography of Osama Bin Laden, Part Two
[News-and-Society:Politics] He moved to Khartoum, Sudan in 1992, and continued verbally attacking King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden's family were persuaded to cut off his monthly allowance of seven millions dollars. Bin Laden was now closely associated with Egyptian Islamic Jihad which made up the core of the Al-Qaeda.

A History of Armenia
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Following Persian and Macedonian rule, the Artaxid dynasty from 190 BC gave rise to the Kingdom of Armenia which rose to the peak of its influence under Tigranes II before falling under Roman rule. The Armenians later fell under Byzantine, Persian and Islamic rule, but later managed to reinstate their independence with the Bagratuni Dynasty kingdom of Armenia. The kingdom fell under the Seljuk conquest in 1064, however the Armenians established a kingdom in Cilicia, existing as an independent entity until 1375.

A History of Lebanon, Part Four
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] On 25 May, 2000. Israel completed its withdrawal from the south of Lebanon, only a fifty acre piece of Lebanese terrain, known as the Shebaa Farms remains under Israeli control. The UN has certified Israel's withdrawal and regards the Shebaa Farms as occupied Syrian territory, while Lebanon and Syria regard it as occupied Lebanese territory.

A History of Lebanon, Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Israel eventually invaded Lebanon in 1978 in response to a wave of Fatah attacks, occupying most of the area south of the Litani River. The UN Security Council called for an immediate Israeli withdrawal and created the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) charged with maintaining peace. Israeli forces withdrew leaving an SLA-controlled border strip as a protective against PLO incursions.

A History of Lebanon, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] During the 1960s, Lebanon enjoyed a period of relative calm, as it enjoyed prosperity derived from tourism and banking. The country was perceived as a bastion of economic progress by the oil rich Gulf states, their funds transformed Lebanon's economy into one of the fastest growing in the world. However this period of economic success was dragged to an abrupt halt with the collapse of Yousef Beidas' Intra Bank, the country's largest bank in 1966.

A History of Lebanon - Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The earliest settlement of Lebanon is believed to stretch back earlier than 5,000 BC, indeed Byblos is generally considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. The coastal plain of Lebanon was home to the Phoenicians whose maritime culture flourished for over 2,000 years. Their most famous colonies included Cadiz in modcern day Spain and Carthage in modern day Tunisia.

A History of Israel - Part Five
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] In June 1985, Israel withdrew most of its troops from Lebanon, leaving a residual Israeli force and an Israeli-supported militia in South Lebanon, creating a 'security zone' to act as a buffer to prevent attacks on North Israel. Continued Israeli settlement and occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, led to the First Palestinian Intifada in 1987 which lasted until 1991. In October 1991, US President George W Bush and the Soviet Union Premier, Mikhail Gorbachev, jointly convened a historic meeting in Madrid of Israeli, Lebanese, Jordanian, Syrian and Palestinian leaders.

A History of Israel - Part Four
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] In September 1970, King Hussein of Jordan drove the Palestinian Liberation Organisation out of his country, they shifted their operations to Lebanon where the 1969 Cairo agreement had given the Palestinians autonomy in the south of the country. On 6 October 1973, Syrian and Egyptian forces launched a surprise attack on Israel, however despite early losses, Israeli forces managed to repulse the attackers. In November 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made a monumental visit to Jerusalem at the invitation of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

A History of Israel - Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Arab supply routes were long and fragile and as the war dragged on they began to develop problems in re-supplying their ammunition banks. In 1949 a ceasefire was declared and Israel's interim borders were drawn, later becoming known as the Green Line. Egypt remained in control of the Gaza strip and Transjordan annexed the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.

Al-Qaeda - A History
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The origins of Al-Qaeda can be traced to the Soviet War in Afghanistan. The United States viewed the Soviet support of the Afghan Marxists against the Afghan mujahedeen as a sign of Soviet aggression and expansionist policy. The CIA launched Operation Cyclone, channelling funds through Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency to the mujahedeen.

A History of Israel, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Continued Arab attacks and a general failure on the part of the British authorities to protect Jewish settlers led the Jews into creating a defence militia. With increased persecution of Jews by the emerging fascist states in Europe, there was a marked increase in the numbers of settlers arriving in Palestine. This in turn led to a large scale Arab rebellion in Palestine from 1936-1939.

The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzche
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Philosophy] The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzche developed during the nineteenth century, subsequently it flourished during the twentieth century becoming very influential. His work is subjected to countless interpretations as he never specifically outlined his exact philosophy and he wrote in a very evocative style. Many aspects of his style alienated him from the philosophical establishment during his life-time.

Was Macbeth Scotland's Most Dastardly King?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Shakespeare drew loosely from historical accounts about King Macbeth of Scotland for his play Macbeth. Early in the play Macbeth, who is a general in King Duncan of Scotland's army is told by Three Witches that he will one day be king. Lady Macbeth hatches a plot to murder Duncan so her husband can claim the throne for himself.

A History of James I of England & VI of Scotland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] James Charles Stuart was the only child of Mary, Queen of Scots and her second husband, Henry Stuart, Duke of Albany. James succeeded Mary to the throne after her abdication, he was only one year old, becoming King James VI of Scotland. He married Anne of Denmark, daughter of Frederick II in 1590.

Primal Scream - What Are They About?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Bobby Gillespie established the band Primal Scream with Jim Beattie in 1982, they recruited Robert 'Throb' young on bass, rhythm guitarist Stuart May, drummer Tom McGurk and tambourine player Martin St. John. They were signed by Alan McGee's independent label Creation Records and recorded their debut single All Fall Down.

Sean Connery - The Greatest Bond of Them All?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Sean Connery was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1930. After competing in the 1953 Mr. Universe competition, he was encouraged to go into acting, he landed parts in a BBC production of Anna Karenina and in the 1959 film, Darby O'Gill and the Little People.

Braveheart - Will the Real William Wallace Please Stand Up?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] William Wallace's activities prior to 1297 are completely undocumented, he first enters the annals of history rather infamously when he killed William Heselrig, the English Sheriff of Lanark. He became involved in the Scottish Wars of Independence achieving victories at Loudoun Hill and Ayr, he also fought alongside Sir William Douglas the Hardy at Scone. On September 11 1297, Wallace won the Battle of Stirling Bridge against a vastly superior English army.

A History of Robert the Bruce of Scotland, Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Robert the Bruce disagreed with the outcome of the Great Cause in 1292, which gave the Crown of Scotland to John Balliol, he viewed it as unjust in that it prevented his branch of family their rightful place. He sided with Edward I against John, he received a respite for all his debts owed to the English Exchequer. In 1296, Robert the Bruce and his father swore fealty to Edward I, but the following year Robert supported the Scottish revolt against Edward.

The Tragic Life of Mary, Queen of Scots, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] When Mary's husband, Francois died in 1560, France decided to withdraw their troops from Scotland and recognise Elizabeth as Queen of England, Mary refused to ratify this agreement. She returned to Scotland in 1561 but she tolerated the Protestant ascendancy. In 1565, Mary married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.

The Tragic Life of Mary, Queen of Scots - Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Princess Mary Stuart was born at Linlithgow Place, Linlithgow, Scotland in December 1542 to King James V of Scotland and his French wife Mary of Guise. The week old Mary became Queen of Scotland when her father died at the age of 30. Things were moving rather swiftly for Mary, when just six months old, the Treaties of Greenwich promised Mary to be married to Edward , son of King Henry VIII in 1552 and for their heirs to inherit the Kingdoms of Scotland and England.

A History of Israel - Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] There is evidence of a Jewish presence in Israel for over three thousand years, the very title Jewish comes from their origin in Judah. In the first century AD the Jews broke away from the Roman Empire setting up a new kingdom, Israel. The Romans subsequently crushed the revolt, the Jews rose again in the second, it too was suppressed - the Jews were thrown out of Jerusalem and their province of Judah was re-named Palaestina.

Was Dalglish Liverpool's Greatest?
[Recreation-and-Sports:Soccer] Kenny Dalglish was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 4 March 1951. He signed professionally with Celtic in May 1967, making his first team competitive debut in September 1968 against Hamilton Academical. It took him three years to establish a regular team place but when he did he became a firm favourite of the Celtic faithful.

A History of James II of England & VII of Scotland, Part Three
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Threatened by a Catholic dynasty, a group of Protestant nobles, later known as the Immortal Seven, invited the Prince of Orange to come to England with an army. William arrived in England on 5 November 1688, many Protestant officers defected to his side as did James' daughter Princess Anne. James bottled it, refusing to attack and fled to France, seeking refuge in the court of his cousin, Louis XIV.

A History of James II of England & VII of Scotland, Part Two
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] In fear of the so called Exclusion Bill being passed, Charles II dissolved Parliament in 1679, this was to happen again in 1680 and 1681. This Exclusion Crisis was a major contributor to development of the English two party system, the Whigs who supported the Bill and the Tories who opposed it. In 1680, James was appointed as Lord High Commissioner of Scotland in order to suppress a rising and impose royal government.

A History of James II of England & VII of Scotland - Part One
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] James was the second surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France and was born on 14 October 1633. When Charles I was executed in 1649, monarchists proclaimed James' older brother, Charles, as King Charles II. Both brothers sought refuge on the Continent, where James fought in both the French and Spanish armies.

A History of Iraq
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Ancient Mesopotamia was settled and conquered by a number of ancient civilisations, including the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Chaldeans. Nebuchadnezzar II was a ruler of Babylon during the Chaldean Dynasty, he is mentioned in the Bible, constructed the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (one of the seven wonders of the world) and conquered Judah and Jerusalem. Various invaders conquered the land after Nebuchadnezzar's death, including Cyrus the Great in 539 BC, Alexander the Great in 331 BC and it was under Greek rule for two centuries under the Seleucid dynasty.

Who Was Bonnie Prince Charlie?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Charles Edward Stuart was born on 31 December 1720 was known as Bonnie Prince Charlie. He was the exiled Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland. He was the grandson of James II and James VII, after his father's death Charles was recognised as Charles III by his supporters, his opponents referred to him as The Young Pretender.

Was Lonnie Donegan the King of Skiffle?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Anthony James Donegan was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 29 April 1931, the son of a violinist who had played with the Scottish National Orchestra. When still an infant, Lonnie's family moved to London, as a teenager he was playing guitar around London and visiting small jazz clubs. In 1952 he formed his first group, the Tony Donegan Jazz Band, on one occasion opening for the American blues musician Lonnie Johnson, from whom he took his name as a tribute.

Who Was Lawrence of Arabia?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] TE Lawrence was born on 16 August 1888, his father was the seventh Baronet of Westmeath in Ireland. He was educated at City of Oxford High School for Boys and at Jesus College, Oxford. In the summer of 1909 he set out on a three month walking tour of crusader castles in Syria which provided research for his First Class Honours thesis The Influence of the Crusades on European Military Architecture - to the end of the twelfth century.

How Irish Was the Revolutionary Che Guevara?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Ernesto 'Che' Guevara was born on 14 June, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina, the eldest of five children into a family of Spanish, Basque and Irish descent. His father Ernesto Guevera Lynch said of his son, that his veins flowed with the blood of Irish rebels. His great-grandfather, Patrick Lynch allegedly left Galway, Ireland during the devastating famine in the 1840's.

How to Attract Girls
[Relationships:Singles] Irish girls are a law onto themselves, they are free spirits and are not the easiest to agree to commitment. You will have to work hard, here are some hints to help you make an impression.

The Life and Writings of George Bernard Shaw
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1856, he hated school and upon leaving education he took up a job as clerk in an estate office for several years, but he found that he was equally as unhappy. In 1876, he moved to London, his mother provided him with a pound a week while he frequented public libraries and the British Museum where he studied earnestly and began writing. Influenced by his reading, he became a dedicated Socialist and a member of the Fabian Society.

Sir Robert McClure - The Greatest Arctic Explorer?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Sir Robert McClure was born in Wexford, Ireland; he joined the British navy in 1824 and twelve years later gained his first experience of Arctic exploration as a mate on the HMS Terror in the 1836 expedition led by Sir George Back. Between 1838 and 1846, he served on the Canadian lakes and was attached to naval stations in the West Indies and North America. In 1848 he joined the Franklin search expedition under James Clark Ross as first lieutenant on the Enterprise.

The Acting Life of Cillian Murphy
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Cillian Murphy was born in 1976 in Cork, Ireland. Along with his brother he formed a band named The Sons of Mr Greengenes. They were offered a five album deal by Acid Jazz Records but hey did not sign the contract. He made his professional acting debut in Enda Walsh's Disco Pigs in 1996 with which he toured through Europe, Canada and Australia for two years, Subsequently he starred in a number of independent films and stage plays.

The Writing Life of James Joyce
[Book-Reviews:Short-Stories] Joyce's first major work, Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short stories, was published in 1914. They concentrate on the idea of an epiphany, a moment when the main protagonist gains self-awareness or understanding. The stories follow a logical order from childhood to adolescence to maturity and finally death, the last story being entitled The Dead.

Is Snow Patrol the New U2?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Snow Patrol were originally formed in 1994 as Shrug by Gary Lightbody and Mark McCelland while attending the University of Dundee in Scotland. They changed their name to Polar Bear in 1995 whilst playing at the university and in surrounding pubs. In 1997 they changed their name to Snow Patrol and released a three track EP, called Starfighter Pilot on the Electric Honey label.

Derrigimlagh Bog - The Most Modern Bog in the World? The Centre of Modern Technology in the World?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Today, when travelling south of Clifden, County Galway in Ireland look out for Derrigimlagh Bog where you will find a scattering of concrete blocks and a few lengths of rusty chains, not much to look at but these are the sparse remains of the world's first transatlantic radio station. It was constructed by the radio pioneer, Guglielmo Marconi - a huge complex to house capacitors, receivers and accommodation for 150 staff.

Ernest Shackleton - The Greatest Antarctic Explorer Ever?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Ernest Shackleton was born in 1874, in Kilkea, Co. Kildare, Ireland. He left school at the age of sixteen and began a four year apprenticeship with the North Western Shipping Company.

The Greatest Book Ever Written? - Ulysses
[Book-Reviews:Literary-Classics] Ulysses is considered as one of the most important works of modernist literature, it chronicles the travails of the main protagonists, Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dadelaus on an ordinary day in Dublin on 16 June 1904. It's stream of consciousness technique, crafty structuring, experimental prose, diverse vocabulary, rich characters and satirical qualities have made the work one of the most well regarded books ever written. It is divided into eighteen chapters or episodes, each of which has as assigned theme, technique and correspondences between characters in Ulysses and characters in the Odyssey.

Knock, Co - Mayo, Ireland - The Smallest Airport in the World
[Travel-and-Leisure:Airline-Travel] There is an international airport in the tiny village of Knock, Co. Mayo in Ireland, surely it is one of the tiniest villages in the world to have one. Why is it there? It all began on a wet evening in August 1879, when two women, Mary McLoughlin and Mary Beirne were passing the parish church and the Virgin Mary appeared to them, flanked by St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist.

James Joyce - The Greatest Writer of the Twentieth Century
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] James Joyce was born in Dublin on 2 February 1882, the oldest of ten surviving children; two of his siblings died of typhoid. Joyce was initially educated by the Jesuit order at Clongowes Wood College, Co.Kildare, however he was forced to leave as his father could no longer afford the fees.

How to Tell If an Irish Girl is in Love With You!
[Relationships:Love] It is a confusing time if you have fallen in love with an Irish girl but are not sure if she feels the same. Here are some pointers to help you out.

How to Tell If an Irish Girl Likes You!
[Relationships] A famous Irish writer once commented 'you can tell an Irish woman but you can't tell her much', they are complex, enigmatic and mysterious creatures. If you have become intimate with a wonderful Irish colleen but are confused as to her hazy intentions, if you are relentlessly asking whether she likes you romantically or not, whether she thinks about you, the way you constantly think about her - here is a list that may provide you with a whole heap of assistance. Here are the five magical indicators to know that she like YOU!

The Most Famous Irishman in India, George Thomas
[Reference-and-Education] George Thomas was born in Tipperary, Ireland, he joined the British Navy when he was just a boy. By the age of twenty-five he had risen to the rank of quartermaster. In 1782 while the ship on which he was serving was anchored off Madras, India he jumped ship and deserted.

Halloween Ghouls and Ghosts of Ireland - The Puca
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] The Pooka is the Anglicisation of the Old Gaelic word Puca, it refers to the most feared and respected fairy in Celtic folklore. According to legend, the Puca can metamorphose into a wide variety of shapes, it may appear as a horse, rabbit, goat, dog or goblin. However, it most commonly assumes the shape of a dark horse with yellow eyes, it roams the countryside at night smashing down fences and gates, terrifying and scattering livestock.

Roy Keane, Manchester United's Greatest Player?
[Recreation-and-Sports:Football] Roy Keane was born on 10 August 1971 in Cork City, Ireland. In 1989 he signed for Cobh Ramblers who were a semi professional outfit in Cork City. He impressed Brian Clough of Nottingham Forest enough to be offered a contract in the summer of 1990.

Stay Safe at Halloween
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] The Parshell is a cross that is traditionally woven on Halloween night, it is placed over the front door on the inside of the house, it is believed to protect the household from sickness, bad luck and evil for a year. To make one you will require two sticks about seven inches long, string and straw. Firstly, fasten the sticks together to form a cross, then moving clockwise, weave the straw over one stick and under the next, continuing like so around the cross.

Maureen O'Hara, an Irish Starlet in Hollywood
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Maureen O'Hara was born in Ranelagh, Dublin in 1920, she began her acting career by training in the Abbey Theatre. Charles Laughton spotted her and offered her a seven year contract with Mayflower Pictures, for whom she made her major screen debut in Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn. Laughton then cast her opposite him in The Hunchback of Notre Dame as the heroine Esmeralda which was filmed at RKO studios in Hollywood.

The Life and Music of Van Morrison
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Van Morrison was born on 31 August 1945in Belfast, Ireland. As a young teenager he was involved in numerous bands including the Sputniks, Midnight Special, Deanie Sands and the Javelins and the Monarchs. After leaving school he played with the Harry Mack Showband and the Great Eight with his friend and some time mentor Geordie Sproule.

A Weekend on the Aran Islands, Europe's Most Westerly Isles
[Travel-and-Leisure:Destination-Tips] Inishmor is the largest and most accessible of the Aran Islands. You can reach Inishmor by plane from Connemara regional airport at Minna, near Inverin, about 35km west of Galway or by ferry from Rossaveal about 40km west of Galway. Inishmor, teetering on the very edge of Europe, is an island rich in culture and tradition, a place of timelessness and mysticism.

A History of U2, the Greatest Rock Band on the Planet, Part II
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Their LP The Joshua Tree, released in 1987, confirmed U2 as one of the biggest bands on the planet reaching number 1 in twenty-two countries, remaining at the top spot in the US charts for nine weeks and putting them on the cover of TIME magazine. The documentary Rattle and Hum featured footage recorded from the subsequent tour, they also released an accompanying LP of the same name, from which the single Desire gave the band their first UK number 1.

A History of the Flight of the Wild Geese From Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Treaty of Limerick signed in 1691 brought an end to the Williamite War in Ireland. One of the terms of agreement was the departure of the Jacobite Army to the Continent under the command of Patrick Sarsfield in what was to become known as The Flight of the Wild Geese. The term was derived from the practice of entering the soldiers in the ships' logs as wild geese with the intention of masking their presence.

A History of U2, the Greatest Rock Band on the Planet, Part I
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] U2 was formed in 1977 when fourteen year old Larry Mullen Jr. posted a notice on his school notice board seeking musicians for a new band. They were called Feedback and The Hype before settling on the name, U2.

Ambrose and Bernardo - The Irish O'Higgins in Argentina and Chile
[Reference-and-Education] Ambrose O'Higgins was born in Ballynary, Co. Sligo in 1720. The O'Higgins family had possessed large swathes of land but lost them all in the wake of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.

The Life and Writings of Sean O'Casey - Irish Playwright
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Sean O'Casey was born in Dublin in 1880 at 85 Upper Dorset St in the northern inner-city area of Dublin. He grew up surrounded by the tenements that would form the backdrop of his ground-breaking plays. He joined the Gaelic League in 1906 and learned to speak Irish, he also became a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and became involved in the Irish Transport and General Workers Union which represented the interests of the unskilled workers who lived in the Irish tenements.

Ghosts and Ghouls of Ireland - The Banshee
[Travel-and-Leisure:Destination-Tips] Banshee is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic word bean si (meaning woman of the side or woman of the fairy mounds), it is a female ancestral spirit who forewarns members of certain families about impending death. According to legend, the banshee will wail around the house the night before somebody inside is about to die. There are only certain families that are believed to have a banshee attached to them - O'Grady, O'Brien, O'Connor, O'Donnell, O'Neill and Kavanagh, although intermarriage has extended this select list.

The Life of Jonathan Swift
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, on 30 November 1667, unfortunately his father died before he was born. The facts about Swift's early life are quite hazy, it is believed that his mother moved to England, leaving Jonathan in the care of his father's brother Godwin. Swift studied at Kilkenny College (1674-1682) and Trinity College Dublin (1682-1689).

The Most Haunted Place in Ireland - Leap Castle
[Travel-and-Leisure:Destination-Tips] Leap Castle is sometimes dubbed as the most haunted place in Ireland, it certainly possesses a particularly bloody history. It is located in Co. Offaly, just outside the town of Roscrea.

Irish Mythology - The Story of Deirdre
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Deirdre led a tragic life and became known as Deirdre of the Sorrows. She was the daughter of Felim MacDall, an Ulster chieftain, a druid named Cathbad had prophesised that she would be the most beautiful woman in Ireland but her beauty would cause kings to got o war. On hearing the prophecy, the King of Ulster, Conchobar mac Nessa wanted her for himself, he had her brought up in seclusion by a wise, old woman named Leabharcham until she would be old enough to marry.

Irish Mythology - The Story of Emer
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The great warrior, Cuchulainn fell in love with Emer the first time he saw her at the court of the High Kings of Ireland at Tara. Emer was the daughter of Forgall Manach, Lord of Musca. He as not satisfied with Cuchulainn, he sent him to train in martial arts with the great female warrior, Scathach in Scotland, hoping that he would be killed by her.

A Biography of Bob Geldof
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Bob Geldof was born in Dublin in 1954, he worked in a number of jobs before becoming lead singer with The Boomtown Rats in 1975. They had number 1 singles in the UK charts in 1978 with Rat Trap and in 1979 with I Don't Like Mondays. He married Paula Yates and they had three daughters - Fifi Trixabelle, Peaches Honeyblossom and Pixie.

A History of the Dubliners, Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] The Dubliners formed in 1962 in O'Donoghues pub, the founding members were Ronnie Drew, Luke Kelly, Ciaran Bourke and Barney McKenna. They received their major breakthrough in 1967 when their song Seven Drunken Nights received huge airplay and entered the charts. They began to achieve fame and success as singers of street ballads, bawdy songs and great instrumental Irish traditional music.

How to Best Spend 48 Hours in Cork, Ireland
[Travel-and-Leisure:Destination-Tips] Cork City is over 800 years old and is an artistic city home to the Cork Opera House and numerous galleries and theatres. Snug bars hosting impromptu traditional music sessions neighbour chic restaurants serving Atlantic catch and racks of Kerry lamb. Kick-start your day with a bombardment of the senses and take a leisurely stroll through the paradise that is the English Market.

What Goes on at the Puck Fair Festival, Ireland
[Travel-and-Leisure:Destination-Tips] Killorglin, Co. Kerry is the venue for one of the oldest and definitely most unusual festivals in Ireland. The festival is held every year in early August for three days, when King Puck is honoured over three raucous, wild and amusing days and nights.

How to Make an Irish Stew
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Irish stew is a filling, wholesome and hearty dish which can be made from an assortment of readily-available ingredients. In many Irish homes it is a specialty dish with a recipe that has being handed down through the generations, therefore there are an infinite number of variations of the 'real Irish stew' with each creator declaring it the best in the world! It was traditionally made with lamb or mutton; potatoes, onions and parsley; if available you could hock in turnips, parsnips, carrots or barley.

Travelling the Ring of Kerry, Ireland
[Travel-and-Leisure:Destination-Tips] The world famous Ring of Kerry is one of the highlights of any vacation in Ireland. It is a 180km (110 miles) circuit of the Iveragh Peninsula, passing through the intimate towns of Kenmare, Sneem, Waterville, Cahersiveen and Killorglin. The winding, twisting, secondary route is littered with panoramic views, breath-taking scenery and heaps of major attractions.

Celebrating Halloween in Ireland
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] Halloween originated in Ireland as an ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain, which was celebration of the end of the harvest season, it is still sometimes referred to as Celtic New Year. The Celts believed that on October 31 the boundary between the living and the dead was dissolved, the dead walked the earth causing sickness and damaging crops.

A Biography of Oscar Wilde
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1854, into an Anglo-Irish family. His mother Jane Francesca Wilde (pseudonym Speranza) was poet for the Young Islanders and a life long nationalist. Wilde studied classics at Trinity College Dublin from 1871-1874, he won the Berkeley Gold Medal, the highest award available to classics students at Trinity.

A History of Saint Brigid in Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Saint Brigid was an Irish Catholic nun, abbess, who founded several convents who is venerated as a saint. Her feast day falls on February 1, the first day of spring in Ireland. She was born in 453 AD in Faughart near Dundalk, Co. Louth, Ireland to Dubhtach, a pagan chieftain and Brocca, a Christian Pict who had been baptised by St. Patrick.

48 Hours in Belfast
[Travel-and-Leisure:Destination-Tips] Belfast is the pounding heart of Ulster, rejuvenated and confident, she's sparkling once again. Start your day with a hearty breakfast in one of half a dozen cafes along Botanic Avenue before grabbing the excellent brochure 'A Walk in the Park', it details numerous rewarding walks that you can take through the city, ensure that you include the free guided tour of the magnificent City Hall.

The Acting Life of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Jonathan Rhys Meyers was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1977. Casting agents looking for boys to star in the War of the Buttons spotted Rhys-Meyers in a pool hall in Cork City and persuaded him to audition for a part. Although he was passed over, he was encouraged to pursue a career in acting. He landed a part in the 1994 movie, A Man of No Importance and in 1996 as the man who killed Collins in Neil Jordan's Michael Collins.

48 Hours in Galway
[Travel-and-Leisure:Destination-Tips] Weathered mountains, sheep studded hills, bogs and remote villages; all jaggedly sewn together by stonewalls and pounded by the mighty Atlantic forms the spellbinding beauty of Galway. Carved out of this tremendous landscape is legendary Galway City itself. Bohemian, funky and laid-back - revellers drink, sing and dance themselves around the curved, cobblestone lanes of this city steeped in history.

A History of Myles O'Reilly in Ireland and Italy
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Myles William O'Reilly was born on 17 March, 1825. His parents were William O'Reilly (MP for Dundalk) of Knockabbey Castle and the daughter of Myles John O'Reilly of Heathhouse, Queens County. Thus he was descended by both father and mother from the celebrated Edmund O'Reilly. When still quite young he travelled abroad with his father and received the sacrament of confirmation in Rome in 1837.

A History of Myles Keogh in Ireland, Italy and the USA
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Myles Walter Keogh was born on March 25, 1840, at Orchard House, Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, Ireland. Myles and his twelve siblings were reared in comfortable if not wealthy circumstances, and had he chosen to live the life of a gentleman farmer he could probably have done so. His maternal aunt Mary Blanchfield ultimately willed Myles the family estate in Kilkenny known as Clifden Castle.

The Legend of Diarmuid and Grainne
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Grainne, daughter of the High King Cormac Mac Airt was believed to me the most beautiful, desirable and worthiest of women in all of Ireland. Her father gave her hand in marriage to Ireland's greatest warrior Fionn Mac Cumhaill, however at their betrothal feast Grainne became distressed that Fionn was older than her father and fell in love with one of Fionn's men named Diarmuid (who had a love spot on his forehead that made him irresistible to all women).

The Acting Life of Daniel Day Lewis
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Daniel Day Lewis was born in London, in 1957, the son of actress Jill Balcon and the Irish Poet Laureate Cecil Day Lewis. He made his film debut at the age of 14 in Sunday Bloody Sunday in an uncredited role. After leaving school he was accepted into the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He landed a small part in Richard Attenbourgh's epic Gandhi in 1982 after which followed a number of roles in film and on the stage.

The Children of Lir
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Bodh Dearg was elected King of the Tuatha De Dannan much to the chagrin of Lir, his main rival. To appease him, Bodh Dearg sent him one of his daughters, Aoibh, to take as his wife. She bore him four children, a girl named Fionnula and three sons Aodh, Fiachra and Conn. Aiobh died, so Bodh Dearg sent another of his daughters, Aoife to marry Lir.

Bram Stoker and Dracula
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Bram Stoker was born in 1847 in Dublin, he attended Trinity College from which he graduated with honours in mathematics. In 1876 while employed as a civil servant, Stoker wrote a non-fiction book and became the theatre critic for the Dublin Evening Mail newspaper. In 1878 he married Florence Balcombe and the couple moved to London where Stoker became business manager of Henry Irving's Lyceum Theatre.

What is in Guinness?
[Food-and-Drink:Wine-Spirits] Known popularly as the 'black stuff' many people are surprised when they hear that Guinness is not actually black at all but more a ruby red color. This is because of the method used to prepare the ingredients. The barley is roasted in much the same way as coffee beans are roasted and this is what gives it that unique hue.

History of Guinness
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] In 1752 Arthur Guinness was left £100 in the will of Archbishop Price. In 1755 he went into the brewery business in Leixlip, Co. Kildare.

The Writing Style of Samuel Beckett
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Beckett's writing can be roughly divided into three periods - his early works up until 1945; his middle period from 1945 until the early 1960s, during which he wrote his best known works and his late period from the early 1960s until his death in 1989 during which his style became more minimalist. His early works were greatly influenced by James Joyce, critics comment on their erudite nature appearing to overly display the writer's knowledge resulting in some obscurity.

Five Most Unusual Romantic Places in Ireland
[Travel-and-Leisure:Destination-Tips] Castle Leslie offers regal sanctuary in the most unusual, enchanting and luxurious accommodation set in 1,000 acres of ancient woodland and glittering lakes. The Leslie family have lived in the Castle since the 1660's entertaining politicians, ambassadors and the worlds stars. Spoil yourself and spend a remarkable week-end living like a King and Queen - morning horseback riding through the ancient woodland, pampering yourself in the Victorian spa or dancing at the Gala Ball.

A Biography of Samuel Beckett
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Samuel Beckett was born on Good Friday, April 13, 1906 in Dublin. He studied French, Italian and English at Trinity College, Dublin from 1923 to 1927. In 1928 he moved to Paris to take up the post of English lecturer in the Ecole Normale Superieure.

A Biography of WB Yeats
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin in 1865, the son of a well-known painter, John Butler Yeats. Yeats spent his childhood between Dublin, Sligo and London. Although born into the Protestant Ascendancy he became involved in the Celtic Revival which was a movement against the cultural influence of English rule in Ireland and which sought to promote the spirit of Irish native heritage.

Jacobite Wars in Ireland
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] After King James II was deposed he fled to France, King Louis XIV of France granted him money and troops to aid him in regaining his throne. On 12 March 1689 James landed at Kinsale, his main aim in Ireland was as a springboard to regaining the throne, the Irish in turn saw in James a way of altering the Cromwellian land settlements and securing the position of the Catholic Church. The conflict commenced with the armed resistance of the Ulster colonists in Enniskillen and more predominately in Derry where they held out, dealing a fatal blow to James as ...

The Blueshirts
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] The Army Comrades Association was established in Ireland in February 1932. Following the fashion of the private armies on the continent of the period they adopted a uniform from which it's members were referred to as Blue Shirts. General Eoin O'Duffy, a former Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and Commissioner of the Garda Siochana became the leader of the organisation.

Irish Mythology - The Story of the Tain Bo Cuailnge
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Humanities] Tain Bo Cuailnge meaning the Cattle Raid of Cooley is a legendary epic from early Irish literature. The Táin Bo Cuailnge represents the oldest vernacular tale of Western Europe, predating both Beowulf and Homer's Odyssey. It describes the invasion of Ulster by the armies of Queen Medb of Connaught and her husband Ailill intending to steal the Brown Bull of Cuailnge.