Miss Universe

Miss Universe is an annual international beauty contest run by the Miss Universe Organization.

The contest was founded in 1952 by California clothing company Pacific Mills. The pageant became part of Kayser-Roth and then Gulf and Western Industries, before being acquired by Donald Trump in 1996.

Along with its rival contests — Miss World and Miss Earth — this pageant is one of the most publicized beauty contests in the world.The current Miss Universe is Stefanía Fernández, from Venezuela. She won the title on August 23, 2009.

History




The winner of the "Miss America 1951" pageant, Yolande Betbeze, refused to pose in a swimsuit from its major sponsor, Catalina swimwear. As a result, the brand's manufacturer Pacific Mills withdrew from Miss America and set up the Miss USA and Miss Universe contests. The first Miss Universe Pageant was held in Long Beach, California in 1952. It was won by Armi Kuusela from Finland, who gave up her title to get married to a Filipino tycoon, Virgilio Hilario, shortly before her year was complete. Until 1958 the Miss Universe title (like Miss America) was post-dated, so at the time Ms. Kuusela's title was Miss Universe 1953.

The pageant was first televised in 1955. CBS began nationally broadcasting the combined Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants from 1960 and, separately, from 1965. In 2003 NBC took over the television rights.



Competition Formats

In the early years of the pageant, the delegates who made the cut were announced after the preliminary competition. From 1965 to the present day, the semi-finalists were not announced until the night of the main event. The semi-finalists once again competed in evening gown and swimsuit and a top 5 were announced. An interview portion was introduced in 1960 to decide the runners-up and winner.

From 1959 to 1964, there were slight format changes. In 1959 through 1963, there was no cut to 5 finalists; the runners-up and winners were called from the assembled 15 semi-finalists. In 1964, the top 15 became a top 10, and after a round of interview, the winner and runners-up were called from the 10 finalists.

In 1965, the pageant returned to the original format of a cut to 5 finalists, and remained so until 1989.

In 1969, a final question was posed to the last five contestants. The final question was an on-and-off feature of the pageant. In 1990, it had taken root and every pageant since, the final contestants have to answer a final question.

In 1990, the pageant implemented major format changes in the competition itself. Instead of five finalists, the field was reduced from 10 semi-finalists to 6. Each contestant then randomly selected a judge and answered the question posed by the judge. After that, the field was narrowed down further to a final 3. In 1998, the number of finalists was reduced to 5, although there still was a cut to a final 3. This continued to 2001, where the final 5 format was re-instated.

In 2000, the interview portion of the semi-finals was quietly dropped and the contestants once again, as in the early days of the pageant, competed only in swimsuit and gowns.

In 2003, the Top 15 was again selected instead of the Top 10. Cuts were made to make the Top 10, and eventually the Top 5. The final question varied, each coming from the final delegates themselves and the current Miss Universe.

In 2006, twenty semi-finalists were announced, with these delegates competing in the swimsuit competition. The number of competing delegates was then cut to ten, with those delegates competing in the evening gown competition. After that round of competition, the final five were announced, with the finalists competing in the "final question" or interview round. At the end of competition the runners-up were announced and the winner crowned by the outgoing queen.

In 2007 the format changed slightly with the top 15 moving to the swimsuit competition; from there, 10 selected contestants moved on to the evening gown competition where half were eliminated. The final five were competing in the "final question". At the end of competition the runners-up were announced an the winner crowned by the outgoing queen.

The Contest Today



The Miss Universe Organization, a New York-based partnership between NBC and Donald Trump, has run the contest since June 20, 2002. The current president is Paula Shugart. The Organization sells television rights to the pageant in other countries, and also produces the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA contests with the winner of Miss USA representing the USA in Miss Universe.


Candidate Selection

Each year, bids are received by the Miss Universe organizers from organizations who wish to select the Miss Universe contestant for a country. This allows competition between different pageants to hold a country's license, as happened for Miss Italy and Miss France for example, when the licenses for their respective traditional organizations were revoked (the usual Miss France competition returned in 2004).

Usually a country's candidate selection involves pageants in major cities, with the winners competing in a national pageant, but this does not always occur. For example, in 2000 Australia's national pageant was abolished as a relic of a bygone era, with Australian delegates instead chosen by a modeling agency. Such "castings" are generally discouraged by the Miss Universe Organization, which prefers national pageants that preserve an aura of respectability and competition. Despite being "cast", Miss Australia, Jennifer Hawkins, was chosen as Miss Universe 2004. Later that year, Australia resumed its national pageant and chose Michelle Guy as Miss Universe Australia 2005.

Some of the most successful national pageants in the last decade have been Venezuela, USA, Puerto Rico, etc which command consistently high interest and television ratings in their respective countries.[7] Recent arrivals in the pageant include China (2002), Albania (2002), Vietnam (2004), Georgia (2004), Ethiopia (2004), Latvia (2005), Kazakhstan (2006), Tanzania (2007) and Kosovo (2008); there have also been efforts to revive strong national pageants in South Africa, Canada, Spain, Japan, Colombia; Latin America among other regions. Prior powerhouses are Finland, Germany and Sweden. England is the most successfull non-winning country with nine Top 5 positions.

There are continually efforts to expand the pageant, but the participation of some countries such as Algeria has proven difficult due to cultural barriers to the swimsuit competition, while others such as Mozambique, Armenia and Nepal have balked at sending representatives due to the cost (in fact, of all the major international pageants, the franchise fee for Miss Universe is the most expensive). As of 2007, only four countries have been present at every Miss Universe since its inception in 1952: Canada, France, Germany, and the United States. Many European countries allow 17-year-old contestants to compete in their pageants, while Miss Universe's minimum age is 18, so national titleholders often have to be replaced by their runners-up. Miss Universe also prohibits transsexual applicants and age fabrication.


Main Pageant




The main Miss Universe Pageant, as of now, is held over a two week period in May and July. In the 1970s through the 1990s, the pageant was a month long. This allowed time for rehearsals, appearances, and the preliminary competition, with the winner being crowned by the previous year's titleholder during the final competition.

According to the organizers, the Miss Universe contest is more than a beauty pageant: women aspiring to become Miss Universe must be intelligent, well-mannered, and cultured. Often a candidate has lost because she did not have a good answer during the question responses rounds; although this section of competition has held less importance during recent pageants than it did in the twentieth century. Delegates also participate in swimsuit and evening gown competitions.

Currently, the final placement of the finalists is determined by a ranked vote, where each judge ranks each of the final three/five candidates, with the contestant posting the lowest cumulative score becoming the winner. If there is a tie, which often happens when there are even members of the jury, the higher semifinal scores become decisive.

The winner is assigned a one-year contract with the Miss Universe Organization, going overseas to spread messages about the control of diseases, peace, and public awareness of AIDS. Since Donald Trump took over the pageant, the winner has been given the use of a Trump Tower apartment in New York City for use during her reign.

Aside from the main winner and her runners-up, special awards are also awarded to the winners of the best National Costume, Miss Photogenic, and Miss Congeniality. Miss Congeniality is chosen by the delegates themselves. In recent years, Miss Photogenic has been chosen by popular internet vote (the winner used to be chosen by media personnel covering the event).

Final Judgment

The competition for the Miss Universe title has seen many changes, although there have been several constants throughout its history. All the contestants compete in a preliminary round of judging (nowadays called the "Presentation Show") where the field is narrowed to a select number of semi-finalists. This number has fluctuated over the years. The very first Miss Universe pageant had ten semi-finalists. The next two years, the number of semi-finalists grew to 16. In 1955, the number dropped to a stable 15, which remained through 1970. In 1971, the number was reduced to 12. That number was further reduced to a mere 10 in 1984. This lasted until 2001, when the number of 15 was re-instated. In 2006, there were 20 semi-finalists, the highest number ever. In 2007, the Organization announced the Top 15 system will be back, which is also used in 2008.

In the early years, the contestants were judged in swimsuit and evening gown only. In later years, the contestants also competed in a preliminary interview round in a one-on-one meeting with each individual judge.

In 2007, 77 contestants started the competition; the top 15 moving to the swimsuit competition. From there, 10 were selected for the evening gown competition which halved the contenders to 5. These final five then answered a final question to decide the winner.

Crown

The Miss Universe crown used from 2002–2007 was designed by Mikimoto, the official jewellery sponsor of the Miss Universe Organization, and depicted the phoenix rising, signifying status, power and beauty. The crown has 500 diamonds of almost 30 carats (6.0 g), 120 South Sea and Akoya pearls, ranging in size from 3 to 18 mm diameter and is valued at $250,000. The Crown was designed specifically for the pageant on Mikimoto Pearl Island in Japan with the Mikimoto crown and tiara being first used for Miss Universe 2002.

For Miss Universe 2008 a new crown was unveiled. Valued at $120,000, it is made of 18K white and yellow gold. It is composed of over 1,000 precious stones; including 555 white diamonds (30 carats (6.0 g)), 375 cognac diamonds (14 carats (2.8 g)), 10 smoky quartz crystals (20 carats (4.0 g)) and 19 morganite gemstones (60 carats (12 g)). The colors of the jewels chosen for the crown have great significance. The yellow luster of the gold represents the prosperous thriving economy in Vietnam. White, light pink and cognac are the main hues in the crown which represent inspiration and feeling. Each piece of the crown was designed to represent an important attribute of the Miss Universe Pageant. The curves of inlaid precious stones represent the strong development and potential of each country. The image of the crane (Lac Bird) symbolizes Vietnamese spirit and culture. The image of the heart represents unified breath, rhythm and vision, which are powerful internal forces that stress faith, hope and unity. But this Vietnamese crown will only be used in the 57th edition of Miss Universe Pageant.

Musical Score

2004 marked the first year for the Miss Universe pageant to use the Orenté musical score, the official Miss Universe soundtrack. The Orenté musical score is divided into eight sequences: the Orenté Introduction — the musical score played during the live-telecast as the voice over begins the Miss Universe pageant, the Orenté Major — used for the cue after commercial and during the announcement of the newly-crowned Miss Universe, the Orenté Elimination — used for the announcement of semi-finalists, the Orenté Fashion Presentation, the Orenté Interlude — used while showing the ten finalists, the Orenté Pregunta Final — used while the final five finalists answer the final question the Orenté Final Look — used for the final look of the five finalists, and the Orenté Announcement — used while announcing the positions of the final five delegates. In 2008, a new Orenté Fashion Presentation was played during the Fadil Berisha swimsuit photoshoot, the 2007 version was now the called the Orenté Curtain Call, which was used as Melanie B and Jerry Springer called out the delegates just before they made the first cut, making the Orenté musical score divided into nine sequences.

NOTE : IMAGE IS RANDOM
SOURCE FROM WIKIPEDIA

Read more...

William Henry "Bill" Gates III

William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, philanthropist, author, and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is ranked consistently one of the world's wealthiest people and the wealthiest overall as of 2009. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 8 percent of the common stock. He has also authored or co-authored several books.

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a number of industry insiders criticize his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts (see Criticism of Microsoft).In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.

Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January, 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. In June, 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates' last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as non-executive chairman.

Early life

Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, to William H. Gates, Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates, who was of Scottish descent.[8]. His family was upper middle class; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way, and her father, J. W. Maxwell, was a national bank president. Gates has one elder sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister, Libby. He was the fourth of his name in his family, but was known as William Gates III or "Trey" because his father had dropped his own "III" suffix.[9] Early on in his life, Gates' parents had a law career in mind for him.[10]

At 13 he enrolled in the Lakeside School, an exclusive preparatory school.[11] When he was in the eighth grade, the Mothers Club at the school used proceeds from Lakeside School's rummage sale to buy an ASR-33 teletype terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric (GE) computer for the school's students.[12] Gates took an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. He wrote his first computer program on this machine: an implementation of tic-tac-toe that allowed users to play games against the computer. Gates was fascinated by the machine and how it would always execute software code perfectly. When he reflected back on that moment, he commented on it and said, "There was just something neat about the machine."[13] After the Mothers Club donation was exhausted, he and other students sought time on systems including DEC PDP minicomputers. One of these systems was a PDP-10 belonging to Computer Center Corporation (CCC), which banned four Lakeside students—Gates, Paul Allen, Ric Weiland, and Kent Evans—for the summer after it caught them exploiting bugs in the operating system to obtain free computer time.

At the end of the ban, the four students offered to find bugs in CCC's software in exchange for computer time. Rather than use the system via teletype, Gates went to CCC's offices and studied source code for various programs that ran on the system, including programs in FORTRAN, LISP, and machine language. The arrangement with CCC continued until 1970, when the company went out of business. The following year, Information Sciences Inc. hired the four Lakeside students to write a payroll program in COBOL, providing them computer time and royalties. After his administrators became aware of his programming abilities, Gates wrote the school's computer program to schedule students in classes. He modified the code so that he was placed in classes with mostly female students. He later stated that "it was hard to tear myself away from a machine at which I could so unambiguously demonstrate success." At age 17, Gates formed a venture with Allen, called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor. In early 1973, Bill Gates served as a congressional page in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1977, Bill Gates was arrested for a traffic violation.


Gates graduated from Lakeside School in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT and subsequently enrolled at Harvard College in the fall of 1973. Prior to the mid-1990s, an SAT score of 1590 corresponded roughly to an IQ of 170, a figure that has been cited frequently by the press. While at Harvard, he met his future business partner, Steve Ballmer, whom he later appointed as CEO of Microsoft. He also met computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou at Harvard, with whom he collaborated on a paper about pancake sorting. He did not have a definite study plan while a student at Harvard and spent a lot of time using the school's computers. He remained in contact with Paul Allen, joining him at Honeywell during the summer of 1974.The following year saw the release of the MITS Altair 8800 based on the Intel 8080 CPU, and Gates and Allen saw this as the opportunity to start their own computer software company. He had talked this decision over with his parents, who were supportive of him after seeing how much Gates wanted to start a company.

Read more...

Lucy Liu star From Asia

Lucy Liu was born and was raised with her brother, John Liu, in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York by Taiwanese immigrant parents.[1][2] Liu has said that she grew up in a "diverse" neighborhood.[2] Her family spoke Mandarin at home and she did not learn English until she was five years old.[3][4] Her father, Tom, was a civil engineer and her mother, Cecilia, a biochemist,[5] but they sacrificed those careers in Taiwan to come to the United States. Liu, at her parents' insistence, devoted her spare time to studying.

She attended the Joseph Pulitzer Middle School (I.S.145) and she graduated from New York City's prestigious Stuyvesant High School in 1986.[6] She attended New York University for one year, before transferring to the University of Michigan where she joined the Chi Omega sorority and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Asian Languages and Cultures.[2] At one point, Liu worked as a waitress in Michigan.[2]

Career
Liu began acting in 1989, after auditioning for a role in the University of Michigan's production of Alice in Wonderland during her senior year. Liu was cast in the lead role, although she had originally only tried out for a supporting part.[2] Liu had small roles in films and TV (including the "Hell Money" episode of The X-Files and "The March to Freedom" episode on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) before landing a role on Ally McBeal. Liu originally auditioned for the role of 'Nelle Porter' (played by Portia de Rossi), and the character 'Ling Woo' was later created specifically for her. Liu's part on the series was originally not meant to be regular but the enthusiastic audience response to the actress' 'feisty' Ling Woo secured Liu as a permanent cast member. It also earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.[2] Liu cemented her reputation playing bad girls by portraying "Pearl" the sadistic dominatrix/hitwoman for the Chinese mafia in the film Payback (1999).

Liu played Alex Munday in the Charlie's Angels film, alongside established Hollywood stars Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz. The film opened in November 2000 and was a hit, earning more than $125 million in the U.S., and a worldwide total of more than $264 million. The sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, opened in June 2003 and was a box-office hit again, earning more than $100 million in the U.S., and a worldwide total of more than $259 million. In between the two films, Liu starred with Antonio Banderas in Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, a critical and box office failure.

Liu next played O-Ren Ishii, one of the major villains in Quentin Tarantino's 2003 film, Kill Bill. She won an MTV Movie Award for "Best Movie Villain" for the part. Subsequently, Liu appeared on several episodes of Joey with Matt LeBlanc, who played her love interest in the Charlie's Angels movies. She also had smaller roles as Kitty Baxter in the film Chicago, and as a psychologist opposite Keira Knightley in the thriller Domino. In 2006, she played leading lady and love interest to Josh Hartnett in the crime thriller Lucky Number Slevin. Other appearances include a cameo on the animated shows Futurama (as herself in the episodes "I Dated a Robot" and "Love and Rocket" and The Simpsons (on the season sixteen episode "Goo Goo Gai Pan"), a guest host on an episode of the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live in 2000 (musical guest" Jay-Z), and the voice of Elise in SSX Tricky.

In April 2006, the documentary Freedom's Fury premiered, with Liu and her Kill Bill collaborator Tarantino as executive producers.[2] The film dramatizes the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, climaxing with the infamous water polo showdown between Hungary and the Soviet Union at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, known as the 'Blood in the Water match'.

Her film 3 Needles was released on December 1, 2006. In the film, she plays Jin Ping, an HIV-positive Chinese woman. Liu agreed to star in the film for lower than usual pay because she wanted to spread awareness about the way AIDS is improperly treated in China and Thailand.[7] Liu's other recent roles, which met with less success, but later gain cult followings among her fans, include Code Name: The Cleaner, an action comedy released January 5, 2007; Rise, a supernatural thriller co-starring Michael Chiklis in which Liu plays an undead reporter;[4] and Watching the Detectives, an independent romantic comedy co-starring Cillian Murphy. Liu has also signed on to star in a new version of Charlie Chan which has been in pre-production since 2000; she will produce both films.[2]

Liu has guest starred as lawyer Grace Chin on Ugly Betty in the episodes "Derailed" and "Icing on the Cake". She stars in the Sex and the City inspired TV show, Cashmere Mafia on ABC. In 2007, Empire magazine named her among the "100 Sexiest Movie Stars".[8]

In 2008, after pitching an interest in being part of the hit new show Dirty Sexy Money, the producers immediately created a role for her as a series regular. She plays the role of Nola Lyons, a powerful attorney that faces Nick George (played by Peter Krause).[9] Also in 2008, she voiced Silvermist in Tinker Bell (2008). She also appeared in Kung Fu Panda, an animated film in which she voiced Viper.[2]

Television
• Beverly Hills, 90210 - Season 2, Episode 6 - "Pass, Not Pass" (1991)
• L.A. Law - Season 8, Episode 4 - "Foreign Co-respondent" (1993)
• Hotel Malibu - Season 1, Episode 2 - "Do Not Disturb" (1994)
• Coach - Season 7, Episode 2 - "It Should Happen to You" (1994)
• Coach - Season 7, Episode 11 - "Out of Control" (1994)
• Home Improvement - Season 4, Episode 16 - "Bachelor of the Year" (1995)
• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - Season 1, Episode 8 - "The March to Freedom" (1995)
• ER - Season 2, Episode 3 - "Do One, Teach One, Kill One" (1995)
• ER - Season 2, Episode 4 - "What Life?" (1995)
• ER - Season 2, Episode 5 - "And Baby Makes Two" (1995)
• Nash Bridges - Season 1, Episode 1 - "Genesis" (1996)
• The X-Files - Season 3, Episode 19 - "Hell Money" (1996)
• High Incident - Season 1, Episode 6 - "Father Knows Best" (1996)
• High Incident - Season 1, Episode 7 - "Follow the Leader" (1996)
• Pearl - Season 1, Episode 7 - "Ticket to ride" (1996)
• Pearl - Season 1, Episode 8 - "Homecoming: Part 1" (1996)
• Pearl - Season 1, Episode 10 - "Lessons in Love" (1996)
• Pearl - Season 1, Episode 12 - "Christmas Daze" (1996)
• Pearl - Season 1, Episode 13 - "Power Play" (1997)
• Pearl - Season 1, Episode 15 - "Mission ImPearlsible" (1997)
• NYPD Blue - Season 4, Episode 17 - "A Wrenching Experience" (1997)
• Pearl - Season 1, Episode 21 - "My So-Called Real Life" (1997)
• Dellaventura - Season 1, Episode 2 - "Pilot" (1997)
• Michael Hayes - Season 1, Episode 8 - "Slaves" (1997)
• Ally McBeal - Seasons 2-5, 66 episodes (1998–2002)
• Sex and the City - Season 4, Episode 11 - "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda" (2001)
• Jackie Chan Adventures - Season 4, Episode 11 - "J2: Rise of the Dragons" (2004)
• Jackie Chan Adventures - Season 5, Episode 11 - "J2 Revised" (2005)
• Joey - Season 1, Several Episodes (2004-2005)
• King of the Hill - Season 7, Episode 3 - "Bad Girls, Bad Girls Whatcha Gonna Do "
• The Simpsons - Season 16, Episode 12 - "Goo Goo Gai Pan" (2005)
• Ugly Betty - Season 1, Episode 16 - "Derailed" (2007)
• Ugly Betty - Season 1, Episode 17 - "Icing on the Cake" (2007)
• Traffic: An MTV EXIT Special - Host of an MTV documentary to raise awareness about human trafficking in Asia (2007)
• Ben & Izzy - Season 1, Episodes 1-13 - Voice-acting for one of the main characters (2007)
• Cashmere Mafia
• Futurama - Season 3, Episode 15 - "I Dated a Robot" (2001), Starring as herself (and robot copies of herself)
• Futurama - Season 4, Episode 4 - "Love and Rocket" (2002), Starring as herself
• Dirty Sexy Money - Season 2-, Nola Lyons

Read more...

Laptop History

A laptop is a personal computer designed for mobile use and small enough to sit on one's lap.[1] A laptop integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device (a touchpad, also known as a trackpad, and/or a pointing stick), speakers, and often including a battery, into a single small and light unit. The rechargeable battery (if present) is charged from an AC adapter and typically stores enough energy to run the laptop for two to three hours in its initial state, depending on the configuration and power management of the computer.

Laptops are usually shaped like a large notebook with thicknesses between 0.7–1.5 inches (18–38 mm) and dimensions ranging from 10x8 inches (27x22cm, 13" display) to 15x11 inches (39x28cm, 17" display) and up. Modern laptops weigh 3 to 12 pounds (1.4 to 5.4 kg); older laptops were usually heavier. Most laptops are designed in the flip form factor to protect the screen and the keyboard when closed. Modern tablet laptops have a complex joint between the keyboard housing and the display, permitting the display panel to swivel and then lay flat on the keyboard housing. They usually have a touchscreen display and some include handwriting recognition or graphics drawing capability.

Laptops were originally considered to be "a small niche market" and were thought suitable mostly for "specialized field applications" such as "the military, the Internal Revenue Service, accountants and sales representatives". But today, there are already more laptops than desktops in businesses, and laptops are becoming obligatory for student use and more popular for general use. In 2008 more laptops than desktops were sold in the US and it has been predicted that the same milestone will be reached in the worldwide market as soon as late 2009.

History



As the personal computer became feasible in the early 1970s, the idea of a portable personal computer followed. A "personal, portable information manipulator" was imagined by Alan Kay at Xerox PARC in 1968[2] and described in his 1972 paper as the "Dynabook".[3]

The IBM SCAMP project (Special Computer APL Machine Portable), was demonstrated in 1973. This prototype was based on the PALM processor (Put All Logic In Microcode).
The IBM 5100, the first commercially available portable computer, appeared in September 1975, and was based on the SCAMP prototype.[4]

As 8-bit CPU machines became widely accepted, the number of portables increased rapidly. The Osborne 1, released in 1981, used the Zilog Z80 and weighed 23.5 pounds (10.7 kg). It had no battery, a 5" CRT screen and dual 5¼" single-density floppy drives. In the same year the first laptop-sized portable computer, the Epson HX-20, was announced.[5] The Epson had a LCD screen, a rechargeable battery and a calculator-size printer in a 1.6 kg (3.5 lb) chassis. Both Tandy/RadioShack and HP also produced portable computers of varying designs during this period.[6][7]

The first laptop using the flip form factor appeared in 1982. The $8150 GRiD Compass 1100 was used at NASA and by the military among others. The Gavilan SC, released in 1983, was the first notebook marketed using the term "laptop".[8] From 1983 onwards, several new input techniques were developed and included in laptops, including the touchpad (Gavilan SC, 1983), the pointing stick (IBM ThinkPad 700, 1992) and handwriting recognition (Linus Write-Top,[9] 1987). Some CPUs were designed specifically for low power use including laptops (Intel i386SL, 1990), and were supported by dynamic power management features (Intel SpeedStep and AMD PowerNow!) in some designs.

Displays reached VGA resolution by 1988 (Compaq SLT/286) and 256-color screens by 1993 (PowerBook 165c), progressing quickly to millions of colors and high resolutions. High-capacity hard drives and optical storage (CD-ROM followed CD-R and CD-RW and eventually by DVD-ROM and the writable varieties) became available in laptops soon after their introduction to the desktops.

Read more...

Angelina Jolie | Beautifull, Smart, And Super

Angelina Jolie (born Angelina Jolie Voight on June 4, 1975) is an American actress and Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. She has received three Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and an Academy Award. Jolie has promoted humanitarian causes throughout the world, and is noted for her work with refugees through UNHCR. She has been cited as one of the world's most beautiful women and her off-screen life is widely reported.

Though she made her screen debut as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in the 1982 film Lookin' to Get Out, Jolie's acting career began in earnest a decade later with the low-budget production Cyborg 2 (1993). Her first leading role in a major film was in Hackers (1995). She starred in the critically acclaimed biographical films George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998), and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Girl, Interrupted (1999). Jolie achieved wider fame after her portrayal of video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), and since then has established herself as one of the best-known and highest-paid actresses in Hollywood.[2] She has had her biggest commercial successes with the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) and the animated film Kung Fu Panda (2008).

Divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie currently lives with actor Brad Pitt, in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media attention. Jolie and Pitt have three adopted children, Maddox, Pax, and Zahara, as well as three biological children, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne.

International success, 2001–present

Although highly regarded for her acting abilities, Jolie's films to date had often not appealed to a wide audience, but Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) made her an international superstar. An adaptation of the popular Tomb Raider videogame, Jolie was required to learn a British accent and undergo extensive martial arts training to play the title role of Lara Croft. She was generally praised for her physical performance, but the movie generated mostly negative reviews. Slant Magazine commented, "Angelina Jolie was born to play Lara Croft but [director] Simon West makes her journey into a game of Frogger. The movie was an international success nonetheless, earning $275 million worldwide, and launched her global reputation as a female action star.

Jolie then starred opposite Antonio Banderas as the mail-order bride Julia Russell in Original Sin (2001), a thriller based on the novel Waltz into Darkness by Cornell Woolrich. The film was a major critical failure, with The New York Times noting, "The story plunges more precipitously than Ms. Jolie's neckline.

In 2002, she played Lanie Kerrigan in Life or Something Like It, a film about an ambitious TV reporter who is told that she will die in a week. The film was poorly received by critics, though Jolie's performance received positive reviews. CNN's Paul Clinton wrote, "Jolie is excellent in her role. Despite some of the ludicrous plot points in the middle of the film, this Academy Award-winning actress is exceedingly believable in her journey towards self-discovery and the true meaning of fulfilling life.
Jolie reprised her role as Lara Croft in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life in 2003. The sequel, while not as lucrative as the original, earned $156 million at the international box-office.

Later that year Jolie starred in Beyond Borders, a film about aid workers in Africa. Although reflecting Jolie's real-life interest in promoting humanitarian relief, the film was critically and financially unsuccessful. The Los Angeles Times wrote, "Jolie, as she did in her Oscar-winning role in Girl, Interrupted, can bring electricity and believability to roles that have a reality she can understand. She can also, witness the Lara Croft films, do acknowledged cartoons. But the limbo of a hybrid character, a badly written cardboard person in a fly-infested, blood-and-guts world, completely defeats her.

In 2004, Jolie starred alongside Ethan Hawke in the thriller Taking Lives. She portrayed Illeana Scott, an FBI profiler summoned to help Montreal law enforcement hunt down a serial killer. The movie received mixed reviews and The Hollywood Reporter concluded, "Angelina Jolie plays a role that definitely feels like something she has already done, but she does add an unmistakable dash of excitement and glamour.

She also provided the voice of Lola, an angelfish in the animated DreamWorks movie Shark Tale (2004) and she had a brief appearance in Kerry Conran's Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), a science fiction adventure film shot with actors entirely in front of a bluescreen. Also in 2004, Jolie played Olympias in Alexander, Oliver Stone's biographical film about the life of Alexander the Great. The film failed domestically, with Stone attributing its poor reception to disapproval of the depiction of Alexander's bisexuality, but it succeeded internationally, with revenue of $139 million outside the United States.

Jolie's only movie in 2005 was the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The film, directed by Doug Liman, tells the story of a bored married couple who find out that they are both secret assassins. Jolie starred as Jane Smith opposite Brad Pitt. The film received mixed reviews, but was generally lauded for the chemistry between the two leads. The Star Tribune noted, "While the story feels haphazard, the movie gets by on gregarious charm, galloping energy and the stars' thermonuclear screen chemistry.The movie earned $478 million worldwide, one of the biggest hits of 2005.

She next appeared in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006), a film about the early history of the CIA, as seen through the eyes of Edward Wilson, played by Matt Damon. Jolie played the supporting role of Margaret Russell, Wilson's neglected wife. According to the Chicago Tribune, "Jolie ages convincingly throughout, and is blithely unconcerned with how her brittle character is coming off in terms of audience sympathy.

Read more...

William Bradley "Brad" Pitt

William Bradley "Brad" Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He has been cited as one of the world's most attractive men and his off-screen life is widely reported.[2][3] Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and has won one Golden Globe Award out of four nominations.

Pitt began his acting career with television guest appearances, which included a role on the CBS soap opera Dallas in 1987. He gained recognition as the cowboy hitchhiker who seduces Geena Davis's character in the 1991 road movie Thelma & Louise. Pitt's first leading roles in big-budget productions came with A River Runs Through It (1992) and Interview with the Vampire (1994). He was cast opposite Anthony Hopkins in the 1994 drama Legends of the Fall, which earned him his first Golden Globe nomination. In 1995, he gave critically acclaimed performances in the crime thriller Seven and the science fiction film Twelve Monkeys, the latter earning him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination. Pitt starred in the 1999 cult hit Fight Club, as well as the 2001 heist film Ocean's Eleven – a major international hit – and its sequels Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007). He has had his biggest commercial successes with Troy (2004) and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). Pitt received his second Academy Award nomination for his performance in the title role in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).

Following a high-profile relationship with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Pitt was married to actress Jennifer Aniston for five years. As of 2009, he lives with actress Angelina Jolie in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media attention.[4] He and Jolie have three adopted children, Maddox, Zahara, and Pax, as well as three biological children, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne. Pitt owns a production company named Plan B Entertainment, which has produced the 2007 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, The Departed, among other films. Since beginning his relationship with Jolie, he has become increasingly involved in social issues, both in the United States and internationally.

Early life

Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, the son of Jane Etta (née Hillhouse), a high school counselor, and William Alvin Pitt, a truck company owner.[5] Along with his siblings Doug (born 1966) and Julie Neal (born 1969),[6] he grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where the family moved soon after his birth. He was raised as a conservative Southern Baptist during childhood.[7]

Pitt attended Kickapoo High School, where he was a member of the golf, tennis and swimming teams. In addition, he was a part of the school's Key and Forensics clubs. He participated in school debates and musicals.[8] Following his graduation, Pitt enrolled at the University of Missouri in 1982. He belonged to the Sigma Chi fraternity,[5] where he acted in several fraternity shows.[9] He majored in journalism, with a focus on advertising.[8] In 1985, two weeks prior to earning his degree, Pitt left the university and moved to Los Angeles, California to take acting lessons.[1] When asked why he left the university, Pitt responded: "I had this sinking feeling as graduation approached. I saw my friends getting jobs. I wasn't ready to settle down. I loved films. They were a portal into different worlds for me, and Missouri wasn't where movies were made. Then it hit me: If they didn't come to me, I'd go to them."[7]


Career

Early work

While struggling in Los Angeles, Pitt took various occasional jobs. These jobs ranged from chauffeur,[10] delivery man,[6] and dressing up as an El Pollo Loco chicken to pay for his acting classes. He began studying with acting coach Roy London.[1][8]

Pitt began his onscreen acting career in 1987 with uncredited parts in the films No Way Out, No Man's Land, and Less Than Zero.[8] He made his television debut with a guest appearance on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains.[11] Between December 1987 and February 1988 he appeared in four episodes of the CBS primetime soap opera Dallas.[12] He portrayed Randy, the boyfriend of Shalane McCall's character, Charlie Wade.[1] Pitt described the character as "an idiot boyfriend who gets caught in the hay".[13] He later said about his scenes with McCall: "It was real sweaty-palms time for me. It was kind of wild, because I'd never even met her before."[1] Pitt made a guest appearance on the FOX police drama 21 Jump Street later in 1988.[14]

That year he also performed in his first leading role in a film, The Dark Side of the Sun, a Yugoslavian-U.S. co-production. He portrayed a young American taken by his family to the Adriatic to find a remedy for a skin condition.[15] The film was shelved due to the outbreak of the Croatian War of Independence and was not released until 1997.[8] In 1989, Pitt appeared in two motion pictures: in a supporting role in the comedy Happy Together and in a featured role, his first to reach theaters, in the horror film Cutting Class.[15] He also made television guest appearances on Head of the Class, Freddy's Nightmares, Thirtysomething, and (for a second time) Growing Pains.[14]

Pitt was cast in the NBC television movie Too Young to Die? in 1990, a story about an abused teenager given the death penalty for murder. Pitt portrayed the part of Billy Canton, a drug addict who takes advantage of a runaway young woman, portrayed by Juliette Lewis.[15][16] Entertainment Weekly's film reviewer wrote: "Pitt is a magnificent slimeball as her hoody boyfriend; looking and sounding like a malevolent John Cougar Mellencamp, he's really scary."[16] That year, he also co-starred in the short-lived FOX dramatic series Glory Days, a stint that lasted for six episodes,[1] and appeared in a supporting role in the HBO television movie The Image.[15]

Pitt's next onscreen appearance was in the 1991 film Across the Tracks. He portrayed Joe Maloney, a high school runner. The character deals with his criminal brother, portrayed by Ricky Schroder.[17] Pitt soon attracted broader public attention with a supporting role in the 1991 road film Thelma & Louise. He portrayed J.D., a small-time criminal who befriends Thelma (Geena Davis). His love scene with Davis, which showed Pitt shirtless and wearing a cowboy hat, has been cited as the moment that defined Pitt as a sex symbol.[11][18]

After the success of Thelma & Louise, Pitt starred opposite Catherine Keener and Nick Cave in Johnny Suede (1991), a low-budget film about an aspiring rock star.[15] In 1992, he appeared in Cool World,[15] before starring as Paul Maclean in Robert Redford's 1992 biographical film A River Runs Through It.[19] His portrayal of the character has been described as a "career-making" performance.[20] Pitt admitted he felt a "bit of pressure" when making the film.[21] He added that it was one of his "weakest performances ... It's so weird that it ended up being the one that I got the most attention for."[21] When asked about working with Redford, Pitt said, "It's like tennis: When you play with somebody better than you, your game gets better."[20]

Pitt reunited with his Too Young to Die? co-star Juliette Lewis in the 1993 road film Kalifornia. He portrayed Early Grayce, a serial killer and the former boyfriend of Lewis's character.[15] In his review of the film, Rolling Stone's Peter Travers described Pitt's performance as "outstanding, all boyish charm and then a snort that exudes pure menace".[22] Later that year, Pitt won a ShoWest Award for Male Star of Tomorrow.[23]

Read more...

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (/ˈhɪləɹi dɑˈjæn ˈɹɑɾəm klˈɪntən/, born October 26, 1947) is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving within the administration of President Barack Obama.

She was a Senator from the state of New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd, President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton, Hillary served as First Lady from 1993 to 2001. In the 2008 election Clinton was a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

A native of Illinois, Hillary Rodham attracted national attention in 1969 when she was chosen by her peers to be the first student commencement speaker at Wellesley College. As a graduate of Yale Law School, Class of 1973, she served temporarily as a Congressional legal counsel. Rodham moved to Arkansas in 1974, marrying Bill Clinton a year later. Hillary Rodham Clinton co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in 1977, and became the first female chair of the Legal Services Corporation in 1978. Named the first female partner at Rose Law Firm in 1979, she was twice listed as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America. First Lady of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992 with husband Bill as Governor, Clinton successfully led a task force to reform Arkansas's education system. She has served on the board of directors of Wal-Mart as well as several other prominent corporations.

In 1994 as First Lady of the United States, her major initiative, the Clinton health care plan, failed to gain approval from the U.S. Congress. However, in 1997 and 1999, Clinton played a role in advocating for the establishment of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the Adoption and Safe Families Act, and the Foster Care Independence Act. Her time as First Lady drew a polarized response from the American public. She is the only First Lady to have been subpoenaed, testifying before a federal grand jury in 1996 due to the Whitewater controversy, but was never charged with any wrongdoing in this or any of the other investigations during her husband's administration. The state of her marriage was the subject of considerable speculation following the Lewinsky scandal in 1998 that spurred Articles of Impeachment to be issued against her husband, Bill Clinton.

In January of 2000, Clinton was elected as senator to the State of New York after moving to the small suburban hamlet of Chappaqua in Westchester County. That election marked the first time an American First Lady had run for public office; Clinton was also the first female senator to represent New York. In the Senate, she initially supported the Bush administration on some foreign policy issues, including a vote for the Iraq War Resolution, subsequently opposing the administration on its conduct of the war in Iraq, and most domestic issues. Senator Clinton was re-elected by a wide margin in 2006. In the 2008 presidential nomination race, Hillary Clinton won more primaries and delegates than any other female candidate in American history, but narrowly lost to Senator Barack Obama. As Secretary of State, Clinton became the first former First Lady to serve in a president's cabinet.

College

In 1965, Rodham enrolled at Wellesley College, where she majored in political science.[16] During her freshman year, she served as president of the Wellesley Young Republicans;[17][18] with this Rockefeller Republican-oriented group,[19] she supported the elections of John Lindsay and Edward Brooke.[20] She later stepped down from this position, as her views changed regarding the American Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War.[17] In a letter to her youth minister at this time, she described herself as "a mind conservative and a heart liberal."[21] In contrast to the 1960s current that believed in radical actions against the political system, she sought to work for change within it.[22] In her junior year, Rodham became a supporter of the anti-war presidential nomination campaign of Democrat Eugene McCarthy.[23] Following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Rodham organized a two-day student strike and worked with Wellesley's black students to recruit more black students and faculty.[23] In early 1968, she was elected president of the Wellesley College Government Association and served through early 1969;[22][24] she was instrumental in keeping Wellesley from being embroiled in the student disruptions common to other colleges.[22] A number of her fellow students thought she might some day become the first woman President of the United States.[22] So she could better understand her changing political views, Professor Alan Schechter assigned Rodham to intern at the House Republican Conference, and she attended the "Wellesley in Washington" summer program.[23] Rodham was invited by moderate New York Republican Representative Charles Goodell to help Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s late-entry campaign for the Republican nomination.[23] Rodham attended the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami. However, she was upset by how Richard Nixon's campaign portrayed Rockefeller and by what she perceived as the convention's "veiled" racist messages, and left the Republican Party for good.[23]

Returning to Wellesley for her final year, Rodham wrote her senior thesis about the tactics of radical community organizer Saul Alinsky under Professor Schechter (years later while she was First Lady, access to the thesis was restricted at the request of the White House and it became the subject of some speculation).[25] In 1969, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts,[26] with departmental honors in political science.[25] Following pressure from some fellow students,[27] she became the first student in Wellesley College history to deliver their commencement address.[24] Her speech received a standing ovation lasting seven minutes.[22][28][29] She was featured in an article published in Life magazine,[30] due to the response to a part of her speech that criticized Senator Edward Brooke, who had spoken before her at the commencement.[27] She also appeared on Irv Kupcinet's nationally syndicated television talk show as well as in Illinois and New England newspapers.[31] That summer, she worked her way across Alaska, washing dishes in Mount McKinley National Park and sliming salmon in a fish processing cannery in Valdez (which fired her and shut down overnight when she complained about unhealthy conditions).[32]

Law school

Rodham then entered Yale Law School, where she served on the editorial board of the Yale Review of Law and Social Action.[33] During her second year, she worked at the Yale Child Study Center,[34] learning about new research on early childhood brain development and working as a research assistant on the seminal work, Beyond the Best Interests of the Child (1973).[35][36] She also took on cases of child abuse at Yale-New Haven Hospital,[35] and volunteered at New Haven Legal Services to provide free legal advice for the poor.[34] In the summer of 1970, she was awarded a grant to work at Marian Wright Edelman's Washington Research Project, where she was assigned to Senator Walter Mondale's Subcommittee on Migratory Labor. There she researched migrant workers' problems in housing, sanitation, health and education.[37] Edelman later became a significant mentor.[38] Together with Bill Clinton, she was recruited by political advisor Anne Wexler to work on the campaign she was running for Connecticut U.S. Senate candidate Joseph Duffey, with Clinton later crediting Wexler with providing her first job in politics.[39]

In the late spring of 1971, she began dating Bill Clinton, also a law student at Yale. That summer, she interned at the Oakland, California, law firm of Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein.[40] The firm was well-known for its support of constitutional rights, civil liberties, and radical causes (two of its four partners were current or former Communist Party members);[40] Rodham worked on child custody and other cases.[nb 2] Clinton canceled his original summer plans, in order to live with her in California;[41] the couple continued living together in New Haven when they returned to law school.[42] The following summer, Rodham and Clinton campaigned in Texas for unsuccessful 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern.[43] She received a Juris Doctor degree from Yale in 1973,[26] having stayed on an extra year in order to be with Clinton.[44] Clinton first proposed marriage to her following graduation, but she declined.[44] She began a year of post-graduate study on children and medicine at the Yale Child Study Center.[45] Her first scholarly article, "Children Under the Law", was published in the Harvard Educational Review in late 1973.[46] Discussing the new children's rights movement, it stated that "child citizens" were "powerless individuals"[47] and argued that children should not be considered equally incompetent from birth to attaining legal age, but that rather courts should presume competence except when there is evidence otherwise, on a case-by-case basis.[48] The article became frequently cited in the field.[49]

Marriage and family, law career and First Lady of Arkansas

From the East Coast to Arkansas

During her post-graduate study, Rodham served as staff attorney for Edelman's newly founded Children's Defense Fund in Cambridge, Massachusetts,[50] and as a consultant to the Carnegie Council on Children.[51] During 1974 she was a member of the impeachment inquiry staff in Washington, D.C., advising the House Committee on the Judiciary during the Watergate scandal.[52] Under the guidance of Chief Counsel John Doar and senior member Bernard Nussbaum,[35] Rodham helped research procedures of impeachment and the historical grounds and standards for impeachment.[52] The committee's work culminated in the resignation of President Richard Nixon in August 1974.[52]

By then, Rodham was viewed as someone with a bright political future; Democratic political organizer and consultant Betsey Wright had moved from Texas to Washington the previous year to help guide her career;[53] Wright thought Rodham had the potential to become a future senator or president.[54] Meanwhile, Clinton had repeatedly asked her to marry him, and she had continued to demur.[55] However, after failing the District of Columbia bar exam[56] and passing the Arkansas exam, Rodham came to a key decision. As she later wrote, "I chose to follow my heart instead of my head".[57] She thus followed Bill Clinton to Arkansas, rather than staying in Washington where career prospects were brighter. Clinton was at the time teaching law and running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in his home state. In August 1974, she moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas, and became one of only two female faculty members in the School of Law at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville,[58][59] where Bill Clinton also was. She gave classes in criminal law, where she was considered a rigorous teacher and tough grader, and was the first director of the school's legal aid clinic.[60] She still harbored doubts about marriage, concerned that her separate identity would be lost and that her accomplishments would be viewed in the light of someone else's.[61]

source : wikipedia

Read more...