Maraba Coffee is a Fairtrade coffee produced in the Maraba area of
southern Rwanda. About 2,000 smallholder farmers grow the coffee
plants under the Abahuzamugambi cooperative, founded in 1999. Since
2000, the cooperative has been supported by the National University of
Rwanda and the Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through
Linkages. The cooperative, which includes many growers who lost family
members in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, has improved coffee quality and
penetrated the specialty market. Farmers' revenues have increased,
allowing for livestock investments, affordable medical insurance, and
improved education. Maraba's coffee plants are the Bourbon variety of
the Coffea arabica species and are grown on fertile volcanic soils on
high-altitude hills. The fruit is handpicked, mostly during the rainy
season between March and May, and brought to a washing station in
Maraba where the coffee beans are extracted and dried. At several
stages, the beans are sorted according to quality. The beans are sold
to various roasting companies, with the highest quality beans going to
Union Coffee Roasters of the United Kingdom and Community Coffee of
the United States.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maraba_Coffee
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
406:
The Vandals, Alans and Suebians crossed the Rhine River to begin an
invasion of Gaul.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaul)
1600:
The British East India Company was founded by a Royal Charter of Queen
Elizabeth I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_East_India_Company)
1963:
The Central African Federation officially collapsed, eventually to
become Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_of_Rhodesia_and_Nyasaland)
1972:
American baseball player Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash en
route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Clemente)
1999:
Boris Yeltsin, the first democratically elected President of Russia,
resigned and named Vladimir Putin as Acting President.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Yeltsin)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
When a thing is done, it's done. Don't look back. Look forward to your
next objective. -- George Marshall
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Marshall)
Kroger Babb was an American film and television producer. His
marketing techniques were similar to a travelling salesman's, with
roots in the medicine-show tradition. Self-described as "America's
Fearless Young Showman," he is best known for his presentation of the
1945 exploitation film Mom and Dad, which was added to the National
Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2005. Babb was involved in
the production and marketing of many films and television shows,
promoting each according to his favorite marketing motto: "You gotta
tell 'em to sell 'em." His films ranged from sex education–style
dramas to "documentaries" on foreign cultures intended to titillate
audiences rather than to educate them, maximizing profits via
marketing gimmicks.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kroger_Babb
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1853:
Gadsden Purchase: The United States bought 30,000 square miles of land
south of the Gila River and west of the Rio Grande from Mexico for
US$10 million.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsden_Purchase)
1880:
Paul Kruger became the President of the Transvaal Republic.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kruger)
1927:
The Ginza Line, the oldest subway line in Asia, opened in Tokyo,
Japan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Metro_Ginza_Line)
1947:
King Michael I was forced to abdicate as Romania became a People's
Republic.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Romania)
1965:
Ferdinand Marcos became President of the Philippines.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Marcos)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too...
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And — which is more — you'll be a Man, my son!
-- Rudyard Kipling
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling)
Sylvanus Morley was an American archaeologist, epigrapher and Mayanist
scholar who made significant contributions towards the study of the
pre-Columbian Maya civilization in the early 20th century. He is
particularly noted for his extensive excavations of the Maya site of
Chichen Itza. He also published several large compilations and
treatises on Maya hieroglyphic writing, and wrote popular accounts on
the Maya for a general audience. To his contemporaries he was one of
the leading Mesoamerican archaeologists of his day; although more
recent developments in the field have resulted in a re-evaluation of
his theories and works, his publications (particularly on calendric
inscriptions) are still cited. Overall, his commitment and enthusiasm
for Maya studies would generate the interest and win the necessary
sponsorship and backing to finance projects which would ultimately
reveal much about the Maya of former times. His involvement in
clandestine espionage activities at the behest of the U.S. Office of
Naval Intelligence was another, surprising, aspect of his career,
which came to light only well after his death.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvanus_Morley
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1831:
Aboard the HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin left Plymouth, England on what
became an historic expedition to South America.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_voyage_of_HMS_Beagle)
1918:
A public speech by famed Polish pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski
in Poznań sparked the Greater Poland Uprising against Germany.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Poland_Uprising_(1918-1919))
1945:
International ratification of the Bretton Woods Agreement, leading to
the establishment of the International Monetary Fund and International
Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system)
1949:
Queen Juliana of the Netherlands signed the papers that relinquished
sovereignty of most of Dutch East Indies, now known as Indonesia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia)
1979:
Soviet war in Afghanistan: Soviet forces seized control of Kabul and
killed Afghan President Hafizullah Amin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_war_in_Afghanistan)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
I am on the edge of mysteries and the veil is getting thinner and
thinner. -- Louis Pasteur
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur)
The British African-Caribbean community are residents of the United
Kingdom who are of West Indian background, and whose ancestors were
indigenous to Africa. As immigration to the UK from Africa increased
in the 1990s, the term has been used to include UK residents solely of
African origin, or as a term to define all Black British residents,
though this is usually denoted by "African and Caribbean". The largest
proportion of the African-Caribbean population in the UK are of
Jamaican origin; others trace origins to smaller nations including
Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Barbados, Saint Lucia,
Grenada, Montserrat, Dominica, Antigua and Guyana, which though
located on the South American mainland, has close cultural ties to the
Caribbean, and was historically considered to be part of the British
West Indies. African-Caribbean communities exist throughout the United
Kingdom, though by far the largest concentrations are in London,
Birmingham and the broader West Midlands conurbation.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_African-Caribbean_community
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1864:
American Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's March to
the Sea ended with the capture of Savannah, Georgia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman's_March_to_the_Sea)
1885:
Itō Hirobumi, a samurai from Chōshū, became the first Prime Minister
of Japan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itō_Hirobumi)
1989:
Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate re-opened after nearly 30 years,
symbolizing the unity of East and West Germany.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_Gate)
2001:
Burhanuddin Rabbani of the Northern Alliance handed over power in
Afghanistan to the interim government headed by Hamid Karzai.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamid_Karzai)
2001:
CC the cat, the first cloned pet, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CC_(cat))
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
It takes great labor to uncover the convincing simple speech of the
heart. Poetic candor comes with hard labor, so even does impetuosity
and impudence. -- Kenneth Rexroth
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kenneth_Rexroth)
Selena was a Mexican-American singer who has been called the "queen"
of Tejano music. She took the award for Female Vocalist of the Year in
1987 at the Tejano Music Awards and landed a recording contract with
EMI a few years later. Her fame continued to grow throughout the early
nineties, especially in Spanish-speaking countries. Her album Selena
Live! won a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American album at the 36th
Grammy Awards and her 1994 album Amor Prohibido was nominated for
another Grammy and produced four number one Spanish hits. Selena
attained further notability in the United States and Mexico after
Yolanda Saldívar, the president of her fan club, murdered her at the
age of 23. Warner Brothers made a film based on her life starring
Jennifer Lopez in 1997. As of June 2006, Selena was commemorated with
a museum and a bronze life-sized statue (Mirador de la Flor in Corpus
Christi, Texas).
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selena
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
69:
Vespasian became the fourth Roman Emperor in the Year of the Four
Emperors.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_of_the_Four_Emperors)
1913:
Arthur Wynne published the first crossword puzzle in the New York
World.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossword)
1937:
The animated feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, based on
the fairy tale Snow White by the Brothers Grimm, premiered to a widely
receptive audience.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Dwarfs_(1937_film))
1962:
Rondane National Park, Norway's first national park, was established.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rondane_National_Park)
1988:
Pan Am Flight 103: A terrorist bomb exploded and destroyed a Boeing
747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270, including 11 on the ground.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
This is the stillness behind motion, when time itself stops; the
center is also the circumference of all. We are awake in the night. We
turn the Wheel to bring the light. We call the sun from the womb of
night. Blessed Be! -- Starhawk
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Starhawk)
The Kengir uprising was a prisoner uprising that took place in the
Soviet prison labor camp Kengir in the spring of 1954. It was distinct
from other Gulag uprisings in the same period in its duration and
intensity. After the murder of some of their fellow prisoners by
guards, Kengir inmates launched a rebellion and proceeded to seize the
entire camp compound, holding it for weeks and creating a period of
freedom for themselves unique in the history of the Gulag. This
situation lasted for an unprecedented length of time and gave rise to
a panoply of colourful and novel activity, including the democratic
formation of a provisional government by the prisoners, prisoner
marriages, the creation of indigenous religious ceremonies, a brief
flowering of art and culture, and the waging of a large, relatively
complex propaganda campaign against the erstwhile authorities. After
40 days of freedom within the camp walls, intermittent negotiation,
and mutual preparation for violent conflict, the uprising was brutally
suppressed by Soviet armed forces. The story of the uprising was first
committed to history in The Gulag Archipelago, a nonfiction work by
former-prisoner and Nobel Prize-winning Russian author Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kengir_uprising
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1803:
As part of the Louisiana Purchase, New Orleans was transferred from
France to the United States.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase)
1860:
South Carolina seceded from the United States, leading to the American
Civil War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War)
1917:
The Cheka, the first Soviet secret police, was founded. Felix
Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky was appointed as its leader.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheka)
1995
The NATO-led IFOR began peacekeeping in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IFOR)
1999:
Portugal transferred sovereignty of Macau to the People's Republic of
China.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Learn this lesson, that to be self-contented is to be vile and
ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and
impotently happy. -- Edwin Abbott Abbott
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edwin_Abbott_Abbott)
Muhammad Iqbal was an Indian Muslim poet, philosopher and politician,
whose poetry in Persian and Urdu is regarded as among the greatest in
modern times. Also famous for his work on religious and political
philosophy in Islam, he is credited with first proposing the idea of
an independent state for Indian Muslims, which would inspire the
creation of Pakistan. He is best known for his poetic works, which
include the Tarana-e-Hind, Asrar-e-Khudi, Rumuz-i-Bekhudi, and the
Bang-i-Dara. He is officially recognised as the "national poet" in
Pakistan. The anniversary of his birth on November 9 is a holiday in
Pakistan. Iqbal was a strong proponent of the political and spiritual
revival of Islamic civilisation across the world, but specifically in
India; a series of famous lectures he delivered to this effect were
published as The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. One of
the most prominent leaders of the All India Muslim League, Iqbal would
encourage the creation of a "state in northwestern India for Indian
Muslims" in his 1930 presidential address.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Iqbal
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1916:
World War I: The Battle of Verdun on the Western Front ended as the
French drove the Germans back to their starting positions.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Verdun)
1972:
Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt aboard Apollo 17
returned to Earth. No human has visited the Moon since.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_17)
1974:
An early personal computer, the Altair 8800, went on sale.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800)
1984:
The People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom signed the
Sino-British Joint Declaration, agreeing the transfer of sovereignty
of Hong Kong to China on July 1, 1997.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-British_Joint_Declaration)
1998:
The U.S. House of Representatives passed articles of impeachment
against President Bill Clinton over the Lewinsky scandal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewinsky_scandal)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
It is wrong to expect a reward for your struggles. The reward is the
act of struggle itself, not what you win. Even though you can't expect
to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt.
That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's life. -- Phil
Ochs
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Phil_Ochs)
The Manila Metro Rail Transit System is part of the main metropolitan
rail system serving the Metro Manila area in the Philippines. Only one
line exists within this network, and that is MRT-3, called the Blue
Line. Although the network has characteristics of light rail, such as
the type of rolling stock used, the system is more akin to a rapid
transit system. The MRT forms part of Metro Manila's rail transport
infrastructure, the Strong Republic Transit System. Although one of
the original purposes of the system was to decongest Epifanio de los
Santos Avenue, one of Metro Manila's main thoroughfares and home to
the MRT, many commuters who ride the MRT also take various forms of
road-based public transport to reach the intended destination from an
MRT station. While this forms a comprehensive transportation system
serving many parts of Metro Manila, the system has only been partially
successful in decongesting the very busy thoroughfare. The expansion
of the system to cover the entire stretch of EDSA is expected to
contribute to current attempts to decongest the thoroughfare and to
cut travel times on one of the Philippines' busiest roadways. The
system is operated by the Metro Rail Transit Corporation, a private
company operating in partnership with the Department of Transportation
and Communications under a Build-Operate-Transfer agreement.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_Metro_Rail_Transit_System
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
218 BC:
Second Punic War: Hannibal Barca had his first great victory over the
Roman Republic at the Battle of the Trebia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Trebia)
1865:
Slavery in the United States was abolished when the Thirteenth
Amendment to the Constitution was adopted.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Cons…)
1961:
Indonesia invaded Dutch New Guinea to annex West Papua on New Guinea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_New_Guinea)
1966:
Epimetheus, one of Saturn's natural satellites, was discovered, but
was mistaken as Janus. It took 12 years to determine that they are two
distinct objects sharing the same orbit.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epimetheus_(moon))
1987:
The first version of the programming language Perl was released by
Larry Wall.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Formerly we used to represent things visible on earth, things we
either liked to look at or would have liked to see. Today we reveal
the reality that is behind visible things, thus expressing the belief
that the visible world is merely an isolated case in relation to the
universe and that there are many more other, latent realities. Things
appear to assume a broader and more diversified meaning, often
seemingly contradicting the rational experience of yesterday. There is
a striving to emphasize the essential character of the accidental. --
Paul Klee
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Klee)
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, as opposed
to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound
films took place in Paris in 1900, but it would be decades before
reliable synchronization was achieved in a commercially practical way.
The first commercial screening of movies with fully synchronized sound
took place in the United States in April 1923. In the early years
after the introduction of sound, films incorporating synchronized
dialogue were known as "talkies." The first feature-length movie
originally presented as a talkie was The Jazz Singer, released in
October 1927. By the early 1930s, the talkies were a global
phenomenon. In the United States, they helped secure Hollywood's
position as one of the world's most powerful cultural/commercial
systems.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_film
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1862:
American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant issued General Order No.
11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Order_No._11_(1862))
1903:
Orville and Wilbur Wright aboard the Wright Flyer conducted the first
successful flight of a powered fixed-wing aircraft.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers)
1944:
Malmedy massacre: Waffen-SS troops under Joachim Peiper shot at about
150 unarmed prisoners of war with machine guns near Malmedy, Belgium.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malmedy_massacre)
1989:
The Simpsons made their debut as an animated series on the Fox
television network.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Simpsons)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
To even mention all the things the bird must constantly keep in mind
in order to fly securely through the air would take a considerable
part of the evening... The bird has learned this art of equilibrium,
and learned it so thoroughly that its skill is not apparent to our
sight. We only learn to appreciate it when we try to imitate it. --
Wilbur Wright
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wilbur_Wright)
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Zarqawi took
responsibility, on several audiotapes, for numerous acts of terrorism
in Iraq and Jordan. These acts include suicide bombings, and the
killing of soldiers, police officers, and civilians. As an Islamist
that identified with the Salafi movement, Zarqawi opposed the presence
of United States and Western military forces in the Islamic world and
opposed the West's support for and the existence of Israel. In
September 2005, he reportedly declared "all-out war" on Shia Muslims
in Iraq and is believed responsible for dispatching numerous Al-Qaeda
suicide bombers throughout Iraq, especially to areas with large
concentrations of Shia civilians. As the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq he
is suspected of responsibility for thousands of deaths. Zarqawi was
killed in a US airstrike in June, 2006.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Musab_al-Zarqawi
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1598:
Admiral Yi Sun Sin's Korean navy defeated the Japanese fleet in the
Battle of Noryang Point, the final naval battle of the Imjin War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Noryang_Point)
1653:
The Protectorate: Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector of the
Commonwealth of England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell)
1689:
The Parliament of England adopted the Bill of Rights, declaring that
Englishmen possessed certain positive civil and political rights.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_Rights_1689)
1773:
Boston Tea Party: To protest the British Tea Act, members of the Sons
of Liberty dumped crates of tea break from three British East India
Company ships into Boston Harbor.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party)
1971:
The Indo-Pakistani War ended when Pakistani forces in East Pakistan
surrendered. This also effectively ended the Bangladesh Liberation War
and led to Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1971)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
What renders man an imaginative and moral being is that in society he
gives new aims to his life which could not have existed in solitude:
the aims of friendship, religion, science, and art. -- George
Santayana
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Santayana)