The Florence Blue Jays are a now defunct minor league baseball team, based out of Florence, South Carolina. They began play in the South Atlantic League in 1981 where they captured the league title in 1985. After the 1986 season the team relocated and became the Myrtle Beach Blue Jays. They were a minor league club of the Toronto Blue Jays and played at Red Wolfe Stadium.

Former Players

Jimmy Key
Pat Borders
Cecil Fielder
Jose Mesa
Fred McGriff

A strip mall (also called a plaza or mini-mall) is an open area shopping center where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front. They face major traffic arterials and tend to be self-contained with few pedestrian connections to surrounding neighborhoods.

Architectural styles

Pitt Street Mall, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Summer Street, Orange, New South Wales, Australia.

Coordinates: 22°19′19″N, 114°10′59″E
King George V School (Chinese: 英皇佐治五世學校), often shortened to "KGV" (pronounced as: K-G-Five) is a co-educational international secondary school of the English Schools Foundation, located in the Ho Man Tin area of Hong Kong. KGV currently serves 1,700 students in the Kowloon peninsula. One of the oldest schools in Hong Kong with a long history and many traditions, the students take GCSEs followed by the International Baccalaureate. KGV has a unit for children with special needs. The campus is 10.2 acres in size.

History
KGV is the oldest of all the schools in the English Schools Foundation. It first opened in 1894 on Nathan Road and originally catered for Europeans living in Kowloon. At that time the school comprised just one small building. It was destroyed in a typhoon in 1896. In 1902 Kowloon College opened in its place. A huge opening ceremony took place. Many of the Hong Kong colony's elite, such as Major General Gascoigne, the Apostolic Vicar of Hong Kong Louis Piazzoli, J.H. Stewart Lockhart the Colony Secretary were there. The school was built using donations from Sir Robert Hotung.

Pre-WW2 period
In 1937, the Japanese army invaded China. Lots of European women and children were evacuated from Shanghai to Hong Kong. They needed a place to stay in the summer and the school was used as a refugee camp. When World War II started in 1939, the government started to worry about the safety of the children. In August 1940 the government ordered the evacuation of European women and children, and the school site was occupied by British forces as a hospital. When Hong Kong surrendered in the Battle of Hong Kong, the school site was taken over by the Japanese and used as a hospital for prisoners of war. It is rumored that the clock tower and/or Pavilion was once used as a morgue or torture chamber under the Japanese occupation and that ghosts of tortured victims inhabit the clock tower and room P14. Dead bodies were also said to be buried under the school field. What is known, however, is that when classes at KGV resumed after WWII, the back of the stage still had the Rising Sun flag (of the Japanese military) painted on its back wall.
When the news was received that Japan had surrendered, the General commanding the school left holding his sword high. As soon as he had left, the school raised the British Flag. It is probably the first in Hong Kong. After the end of the war KGV was used as a military hospital and British doctors lived in the school. The following message was inscribed at the Hall's main entrance: "Never in the field of human conflict" - a reference to Winston Churchill's famous speech given to the British Parliament on 20 August 1940. To this day the quote still remains at the Hall's main entrance.

WW2 period
The school re-opened in the summer of 1946 and in 1947 children of all nationalities were able to join the school. Since it was no longer only for British pupils, the school's name was changed on speech day 1948. It is now called King George V School. George V was King when the foundation stone of the Peel Block was laid.
In 1974, the principal Miss A. Smith decided that KGV should join the English Schools Foundation, and in 1979, the transfer was complete. KGV is currently the oldest school in the ESF.

Post WW2 period
There are approximately 1,700 students of some 28 different nationalities enrolled in the school. Students are accepted from many feeder primary schools in the English Schools Foundation such as Kowloon Junior School, Beacon Hill School, and Clearwater Bay School.
The house system is the basis for all school competitions such as in sports, music, and dance, and often sees fierce competition between the houses. Each student at KGV belongs to a house, named after former members of staff. However, to prevent competition between members of the same family, brothers and sisters are usually placed into the same house.
The houses, and their associated colors, are as follows:
For pastoral purposes, students are allocated year groups ranging from Year 7 to Year 13, depending on their year of birth. These year groups are further split into form groups, named after planets and heavenly bodies: A (Asteroid), E (Earth), G (Galaxy), H (Halley's Comet), J (Jupiter), M (Mars), N (Neptune), P (Pluto), S (Saturn), V (Venus). A form group consists of roughly 30 students, and is allocated a form room, where registration (i.e. attendance) is taken, and any notices such as the Daily Bulletin are read out.
A student's form group originally remained unchanged throughout his or her school career, i.e. a student placed in group 7S would precede to 8S, 9S, and 10S etc. In September 2001, students entering Year 9 had their form groups reshuffled to encourage the students to be more familiar with the rest of the year, but the old system was restored in 2004. Form groups are normally reshuffled again at the beginning of Year 12 to account for leavers after completion of Year 11. Students were formerly picked arbitrarily into form groups, but as of September 2005, senior school students in Year 12 and 13 are placed in house-based form groups. The years are mixed together, known as vertical tutoring, so groups will consist of Year 12 and 13 students. Such groups are named 6N1 (Sixth Form, Nightingale, Group 1) as opposed to previously, where students were placed in groups named 12E, 13M, etc.

Crozier (green) - a teacher who fought to defend Hong Kong in WWII.
Nightingale (yellow) - headmaster who first asked for a new school building, which is now the current school site.
Rowell (blue) - a teacher who designed part of the current site of the school.
Upsdell (red) - the first headmaster to serve in the school building located at the current school site. Students and the house system
Students in KGV have to wear a uniform. In summer, girls in Y7—Y11 wear a blue skirt or blue trousers, a white blouse with the KGV logo, black leather shoes and a pair of plain white socks. Girls in Y12-Y13 wear a khaki skirt or trousers, white blouse, black shoe or sandals and a pair of white socks. Boys in Y7—Y11 wear blue trousers or shorts, a white shirt with the KGV logo, a black leather belt, black leather shoes and a pair of black socks. Boys in Y12-Y13 wear khaki trousers or shorts, a white shirt, a black belt, black shoes and a pair of black socks.
In winter, girls in Y7-Y11 wear a blue skirt, a white long-sleeved blouse, dark blue tights, a yellow tie for Y7-Y8, or a blue tie for Y9-Y11, white socks and black shoes, V-neck pullover or a navy blue blazer. Y12 -Y13 girls wear a khaki skirt or trousers, a white long-sleeved blouse, a blazer or pull-over, dark blue tights, white socks, black shoes and a blue tie. Boys in Y7-Y11 wear blue trousers, a white long- sleeved shirt, a pull-over or blazer, socks and shoes the same as summer uniforms, and yellow tie for Y7 - Y8, blue for Y9-Y11. Y12-Y13 boys wear khaki trousers, a white long-sleeved shirt, a blazer or pull-over, blue tie and shoes and socks as the summer uniforms.

Dress code
The Senior Student Council consists of 14 members, all of them from Year 12. Half of them are elected through direct student voting in the senior school (Years 12 and 13), and half of them are voted from within form groups. The President and Vice President of the Council are then voted in by Year 12 students.
The Senior Student Council listens to the student opinion, through form representatives, assisting the school's development and improvement. In recent SSC elections, issues of concern for KGV students have included congestion in the school's stairways , the lack of means through which students can voice their concerns, and the replacement of malfunctioning computers in the Senior Student Centre Resource Room.

Senior student council
KGV School Council is responsible for the government of the life and work of the school. The Council has a number of responsibilities including monitoring, reviewing and evaluating the School Development Plan; the appointment and promotion of staff; approving the school budget; ensuring the condition and state of repair of the school premises and also acts as a link between ESF management, the school and the community as a whole.
Mr. Donald Yap
Mr. Simon Tsang
Mr. Naresh Khiatani
Mr. Edward Chiu
Mrs. Sue Leatham
Ms. Kirrily Foley

School council
The motto of KGV is Honestas Ante Honores which means "Honesty Before Glory" in Latin.The school song is also called Honestas Ante Honores as well. It is sung at school events such as the Junior School Celebration and Speech Day.

School motto and song

Facilities
This is the list of buildings on the KGV campus as of 2007.
Completed: 1937
This block is named after Sir William Peel, the Governor of Hong Kong from 1930-1935. His name can be found on the foundation stone on the north-east side of the building. This is the first block built on the present school site. It is protected under Hong Kong law because of its age.
The building has a shape of a reversed letter E, and has two stories, housing the Hall, fourteen general-purpose classrooms on the ground floor and an extra four on the first floor, seven senior science labs all on the first floor, the Reading Centre (a junior library), a computer room, two multimedia suites, the staff room and offices, and a lecture theatre. The clock tower sits prominently on the front side of the building. There are also two paved quads for various activities.
Since the KGV site was used as a hospital and a dungeon by the Japanese in World War II, there are many rumours about this block. Many have said that the computer room is haunted and was a torture chamber during the Japanese Occupation, while others say at night footsteps can be heard on the Peel Block's roof.
The Hall, located in the centre of this block, has hardwood flooring in the centre and marble flooring on the side walkways and up halfway along the wall. At the front of the hall is the stage, and to the rear, there is a second balcony level. The hall is outfitted with advanced sound and lighting equipment, and used for events ranging from weekly Assembly to Speech Day (an award ceremony for Year 9s and above) to music and dance competitions.
Completed: 1964
This building, situated on the south side of the campus, is three stories tall. There are two design technology rooms, two textiles technology rooms, and the school's Sick Room on the ground floor; two graphics technology rooms and two food technology rooms on the first floor; six junior science labs, and two general-purpose classrooms on the second and third floors.
Completed: 1979
The school's swimming pool is just behind the Peel Block, and is open during the summer and the autumn for P.E. lessons and after school activities.
Completed: 1982
The Annex Block houses two classrooms on the ground floor and two on the second floor. These classrooms are mainly used for teaching Chinese; there is a Languages Store room as well.
Completed: 1983
Formerly comprised of two squash courts, the Activities Centre now houses two Drama Studios and Drama Department Office, boys' and girls' P.E. changing rooms, and a boys' drama changing room. (The girls' drama changing room is on the ground floor of the Link Block.)
Completed: 1984
This five-storey building literally links the New Block, the Peel Block and the Activities Centre, with covered walkways on connecting floors. This building houses two Design and Technology rooms, a D&T office and store room, as well as a drama studio and girls' drama changing room on the ground floor. The two middle-school pastoral offices, three computer labs, and the School Library are on the first floor; fourteen general-purpose classrooms are spread out amongst the the second, third and fourth floors; three music rooms are on the fourth floor; three art rooms are on the fifth floor.
Completed: 1986
The Jockey Club Sarah Roe Centre was built with funds donated from the then Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club and named after Mrs. Sarah Roe, an occupational therapist, who was a founder of the Child Development Centre at the Matilda Hospital. It originally contained the Jockey Club Sarah Roe School in the Garden Rooms on the ground floor (which moved to new accommodation underneath the Senior Student Centre later in 1996), support offices, and a professional development and resources centre for ESF staff on the floors above.
Over the years, the building has been used for different purposes including housing the offices of ESF Educational Services Ltd, Sally's Place (ESF's Self-Access Language Learning Centre), the ESF Professional Library and KGV using the Garden Rooms as classrooms. Currently, KGV uses the Garden Rooms for teaching purposes whilst the first floor houses KGV's Junior School Office. The remaining office space houses the ESF Education Development Center's satellite office, its conference facilities and the ESF Professional Video Library.
Completed: 1996
The Hong Kong Jockey Club]] Sarah Roe School is housed on the KGV site, and occupies the first two storeys of this building. This facility educates students with special needs across the English Schools Foundation, and is the only such unit in the entire foundation.
KGV occupies the remaining floors, designated by the letter E. The third floor of the building houses the Senior Student Centre (SSC) which is a common lounge/study area reserved exclusively for senior students. There are five classrooms in the Senior Student Centre used by students from all years, as well as a lecture theatre and a computer room. Offices for senior school pastoral staff are also housed there.
In 2001, a vertical extension to the building was completed. The fourth floor of this building provides ten more classrooms as well as a computer lab. There is also a second staff break room there. This floor is technically not part of the Senior Student Centre, but is often referred to by junior students as the "SSC" floor anyway.
The roof of the building has a tennis court. Tennis courts used to be on the ground floor before this building was erected.
Completed: 1999
These six ground-floor classrooms were meant as "temporary" classrooms, but as KGV grew, these classrooms became necessary and thus a permanent fixture. Modern Languages are taught predominantly in these six rooms which occupy the "piazza" area encased inside the square formed by the Peel, New, and Link blocks.
Completion Date Not Known
This block occupies the south-west corner of the school field. Prior to the reconstruction of the field, two classrooms (X1 and X2) were housed in this block, and storage shed and maintenance shed occupied the ground floor. The classrooms have now been converted into changing rooms. Many students and teachers believe the Pavilion was used as a torture chamber during World War II when the Japanese occupied the school.

Peel Block (P)
New Block (N)
Swimming Pool
Annex Block (AN)
Activities Centre
Link Block (L)
Jockey Club Sarah Roe Centre (JCSRC)
Sarah Roe School (JCSRS) / Senior Student Centre (SSC) (E)
"B"-block (B)
Pavilion Block Buildings
As of 2003, KGV's artificially turfed field has become the ESF's multipurpose sports facility. It has markings for various sports such as football (soccer), and also has a track running the perimeter of the field.
Prior to the astroturfing, there was opposition to the use of artificial turf. However, huge amounts of money were spent on maintaining the natural grass on the field's base of hard clay, and so was uneconomic and impractical: Inevitably, after a month or two of use the field would become a large dust bowl and students would often get injured playing on the field. Over HK$16 million was spent on the conversion, which started late in 2002.
KGV has an outdoor, 25 metre swimming pool with six lanes, normally in operation from April (usually after Easter break) to November.
The Canteen block is located next to the swimming pool, houses the canteen (Sodexho), the weights room, the PTSA shop, as well as offices for the PTSA (Parent Teachers Student Association).

Field
Swimming pool
Canteen block Other facilities
There are plans to amalgamate the KGV and KJS (Kowloon Junior School) Perth Street campus to allow KGV to grow further. This would involve the replacement of the canteen block and swimming pool with state-of-the-art facilities including a performance hall, indoor swimming pool, and gym facilities.

Curriculum
KGV, being such an old school, has many traditions in place. The list below is by no means exhaustive.
Formerly held Monday and Friday mornings, they are now held Wednesday afternoons. Assemblies are where announcements are made to the whole school, performances are given, and, in general, is a common bond that holds the school's students together. However, due to the growth in student numbers since 2003, assembly can no longer be held with all students under one roof as was the case then. Currently, assemblies are live broadcast to other venues. These are Drama Studio 1, 2 and 3.
The Pantomime, otherwise called the "panto", is performed by Year 13 students on the final day of the fall term, near to Christmas. Generally making fun of the school or its teachers, this event is invariably a great comedy show for all students.
A concert given by the KGV Orchestra and Choir, open to the general public. White Christmas has been a staple of KGV Christmas Final Assembly for as long as anyone could remember. Originally at KGV sung by W. McMahon, a teacher, no Christmas Carol Concert or Christmas Final Assembly is complete without the singing of this song. After Mr. McMahon's retirement in 2001, White Christmas is now sung by a senior student.
Known as the KGV Karnival prior 2007 or Spring Fair prior 2003, this event is held every year in March or April where KGV is set up to be like a bazaar. Students set up games stalls, merchants set up small shops, and there are performances by student groups as well as the Orchestras (Junior Orchestra and Senior Orchestra) and the Jazz Band.
An elimination game is held on the school field or Hall where a $10 entrance fee is charged, and a series of questions is asked. Proceeds from this game go to the school charity. This is always held at the last day of every school year.
A final assembly on Year 13's final day before exam leave in the summer. Usually, a performance is given by Year 13 students, and final goodbyes are said. There is a recital of Rudyard Kipling's poem If— by the Head Boy, and Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou by the Head Girl. At the end, a band of teachers play Summer Holiday by Cliff Richard while the rest of staff (on stage) and school sing along. Prior to 2002, students would spend the night at the school as well; this tradition was scrapped due to safety concerns.

Assembly
Year 13 pantomime
Christmas carol concert
KGViva
KGV survivor
Year 13 final assembly Trivia

Michael Hutchence – deceased lead singer of Australian band, INXS .
Martin Booth – deceased author of novel Industry of Souls
Dermot Reeve – England cricketer, known as an unorthodox all-rounder.
Kemal Bokhary – Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal, Hong Kong
Tim Atkinson – Player in Australia's Rugby Sevens team
David Millar – Professional Cyclist on the Saunier-Duval Prodir Team & Tour de France Stage Winner

In evolutionary biology, parental investment (PI) is any parental expenditure (time, energy etc.) that benefits one offspring at a cost to parents' ability to invest in other components of fitness (Clutton-Brock 1991: 9; Trivers 1972). Components of fitness (Beatty 1992) include the wellbeing of existing offspring, parents' future reproduction, and inclusive fitness through aid to kin (Hamilton, 1964). Parental investment is sometimes incorrectly equated with parental care or parental effort. Parental investment theory is a branch of life history theory. This potential negative effect of parental care was explicitly formalised by Trivers (1972) who originally defined the term parental investment to mean any investment by the parent in an individual offspring that increases the offspring's chance of surviving (and hence reproductive success) at the cost of the parent's ability to invest in other offspring. Clutton-Brock (1991: 9) expanded the concept of PI to include costs to any other component of parental fitness.
Robert Trivers' theory of parental investment predicts that the sex making the largest investment in lactation, nurturing and protecting offspring will be more discriminating in mating and that the sex that invests less in offspring will compete for access to the higher investing sex (see Bateman's principle). Sex differences in parental effort are important in determining the strength of sexual selection.
Reproduction is costly. Individuals are limited in the degree to which they can devote time and resources to producing and raising their young, and such expenditure may also be detrimental to their future condition, survival and further reproductive output. However, such expenditure is typically beneficial to the offspring, enhancing their condition, survival and reproductive success. These differences may lead to parent-offspring conflict. Parental investment can be provided by the female (female uniparental care), the male (male uniparental care), or both (biparental care). Parents are naturally selected to maximise the difference between the benefits and the costs, and parental care will tend to exist when the benefits are substantially greater than the costs.
Parental care is found in a broad range of taxonomic groups including both ectothermic (invertebrates, fish, amphibians and reptiles) and endothermic (birds and mammals) species. Care can be provided at any stage of the offspring life: pre-natal care including behaviours such as egg guarding, preparation of nest, brood carrying, incubation and placental nourishment in mammals and post-natal care including food provisioning, protection of offspring.
Since both males and females go through several reproductive bouts during their lifetime, it is expected that parents trade-off the benefits of investing in current offspring against the costs to future reproduction. In particular, parents need to balance their offspring demands against their own self-maintenance. The benefits of parental investment to the offspring are large and are associated with the effects on condition, growth, survival and ultimately, on reproductive success of the offspring. However, these benefits can come at the cost of parent's ability to reproduce in the future e.g. through the increased risk of injury when defending offspring against predators, the loss of mating opportunities whilst rearing offspring and an increase in the time to the next reproduction. Overall, parents are selected to maximise the difference between the benefits and the costs, and parental care will be likely to evolve when the benefits are higher than the costs.

Khosrau II or Khosrow II (Chosroes II in classical sources, sometimes called Parvez, "the ever Victorious" – in Persian: خسرو پرویز) was the twenty-second Sassanid King of Persia from 590 to 628. He was the son of Hormizd IV (579–590) and grandson of Khosrau I (531–579).

Biography
Khosrau II was much inferior to his grandfather. He was haughty and cruel, rapacious and given to luxury; he was neither a general nor an administrator. He had a harem of over 10,000 concubines, and when Arab Na'aman refused Khosrau his daughter, he had him crushed by elephants.

Personality and skills
Khosrau II was raised to the throne by the magnates who had rebelled against Hormizd IV, who soon after had his father blinded and killed. But at the same time the general Bahram Chobin had proclaimed himself King Bahram VI (590–591), and Khosrau II was not able to maintain himself.
The war with the Romans, which had begun in 571, had not yet come to an end. Khosrau II fled to Syria, and persuaded the Emperor Maurice (582–602) to send help. Many leading men and part of the troops acknowledged Khosrau II, and in 591 he was brought back to Ctesiphon. Bahram VI was defeated and he fled to the Turks of Central Asia, among whom he was murdered. Peace with Rome was then concluded. Maurice made no use of his advantage; he merely restored the former frontier and abolished the subsidies which had formerly been paid to the Persians.

Accession to the Throne
At the beginning of his reign, Khosrau II favoured the Christians; but when in 602 Maurice had been murdered by Phocas (602–610), he began war with Rome to avenge his death. His armies plundered Syria and Asia Minor, and in 608 advanced to Chalcedon.
In 613 and 614 Damascus and Jerusalem were taken by the general Shahrbaraz, and the True Cross was carried away in triumph. Soon after, General Shahin marched through Anatolia and conquered Egypt in 618. The Romans could offer but little resistance, as they were torn by internal dissensions, and pressed by the Avars and Slavs.

Military Exploits and Early Victories
Ultimately, in 622, the Emperor Heraclius (who had succeeded Phocas in 610 and ruled until 641) was able to take the field. In 624 he advanced into northern Media, where he destroyed the great fire-temple of Ganzhak (Gazaca); in 626 he fought in Lazistan (Colchis). In 626, Persian general Shahrbaraz advanced to Chalcedon and tried to capture Constantinople with the help of Persia's Avar allies. His attempt failed, and he withdrew his army from Anatolia later in 628.
Following the Khazar invasion of Transcaucasia in 627, Heraclius defeated the Persian army at the Battle of Nineveh and advanced towards Ctesiphon. Khosrau II fled from his favourite residence, Dastgerd (near Baghdad), without offering resistance; some of the grandees freed his eldest son Kavadh II (he ruled briefly in 628), whom Khosrau II had imprisoned, and proclaimed King (night of 23-4 February, 628). Four days afterwards, Khosrau II was murdered in his palace. Meanwhile, Heraclius returned in triumph to Constantinople; in 629 the Cross was given back to him and Egypt evacuated, while the Persian empire, from the apparent greatness which it had reached ten years ago, sank into hopeless anarchy. It was overtaken by the armies of the first Islamic Caliphs beginning in 634.

Turn of Tides
Khosrau II (Arabic كسري) is also remembered in muslim tradition to be the Persian king to whom the Islamic prophet Muhammad had sent a messenger, Abdullah ibn Hudhafah as-Sahmi together with a letter to preach the religion of Islam. In Tabari's original Arabic manuscript the letter to Khosrau II reads:
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم من محمد رسول الله الى كسرى عظيم الفارس . سلام على من اتبع الهدى و آمن بالله و رسوله و شهد ان لااله الا الله وحده لاشريك له و ان محمد عبده و رسوله. ادعوك بدعاء الله، فانى رسول الله الى الناس كافة لانذر من كان حيا و يحق القول على الكافرين. فاسلم تسلم . فان ابيت فان اثم المجوس عليك .
English translation:
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Ever Merciful From Muhammad, Messenger of Allah, to Chosroes, Ruler of Persia. Peace be on him who follows the guidance, believes in Allah and His Messenger and bears witness that there is no one worthy of worship save Allah, the One, without associate, and that Muhammad is His Servant and Messenger. I invite you to the Call of Allah, as I am the Messenger of Allah to the whole of mankind, so that I may warn every living person and so that the truth may become clear and the judgment of God may overtake the infidels. I call upon you to accept Islam and thus make yourself secure. If you turn away, you will bear the sins of your Zoroastrian subjects.
The Persian historian Tabari continues that in refusal and outrage, Khosrau tore up Mohammed's letter and commanded Badhan (Persian: باذان), his vassal ruler of Yemen, to dispatch two valiant men to identify, seize and bring this man from Hijaz (Muhammad) to him. The narration carries on with trivial accounts of their encounter and dialogue with Muhammad and conversion of Badhan (Bāzān) and the whole Yemenite Persians to Islam subsequent to receipt of shocking tidings of Khosrau's murder by his own son, Kavadh II (Persian: شيرويه Shirouyeh).

In art

Shirin Beloved wife of Khosrau
Non-Muslims Interactants with Muslims During Muhammad's Era

Queensrÿche (pronounced IPA: ['kwinz.ɹaɪk]) is an American heavy metal / progressive metal band formed in 1981 in Bellevue, Washington. The band has released nine studio albums and an EP and, as of 2007, continues to tour and record.

History
The foundations for Queensrÿche began in the early 1980s. Guitarist Michael Wilton and drummer Scott Rockenfield were members of a band called Cross+Fire, who covered songs from popular heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Before long Cross+Fire added guitarist Chris DeGarmo and bassist Eddie Jackson to their lineup, and changed their name to The Mob. The Mob, who were without a singer, recruited Geoff Tate to sing for them at a local rock festival. At the time, Tate was already in a band called Babylon. After Babylon broke up Tate performed a few shows with The Mob, but left because he was not interested in performing heavy metal. That same year, the band signed to EMI who re-released the EP, Queensrÿche, to moderate success, peaking at #81 on the Billboard charts. When this EP was eventually released on CD several years later, a 5th track, titled "Prophecy", was added to the tracklist; this was a song performed live by the band circa 1983 (and was included on the 1984 "Live In Tokyo" home video), but never released on an album. The track appearing on the CD release of the EP was recorded during the "Rage For Order" sessions (and is not the same version of the song which appears on the soundtrack for the movie, "The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years").

From The Mob to Queensrÿche (early 1980s)
After the EP tour, Queensrÿche travelled to London to record their first full-length album. The band worked with producer James Guthrie, who had worked with Pink Floyd and Judas Priest. Released in September 1984, The Warning featured more progressive elements than the band's debut. It peaked at #61 on the Billboard album chart, a moderate commercial success. While none of the singles released from The Warning charted domestically, "Take Hold of the Flame" was a hit for the band outside the US (particularly in Japan). The band's first full-scale U.S. tour (in support of this album) was as the opening act for Kiss on their Animalize tour.
Rage for Order, released in 1986, introduced a much more polished look and sound for Queensrÿche. The album featured keyboards as prominently as guitars, and the group adopted an image more closely associated with glam rock or glam metal than with heavy metal (of which glam metal was a subgenre). A video was filmed for the song "Gonna Get Close to You," originally recorded in 1984 by Dalbello. A song titled "Rage For Order" was written and demoed for the album, but it was not included on the final release. The main riff from this song was worked into an instrumental piece played during some shows on the tour in support of this album and eventually morphed into the track "Anarchy-X" on the "Operation: Mindcrime" album.

The Warning and Rage for Order (1984–1987)
In 1988, Queensrÿche released Operation: Mindcrime, a narrative concept album that proved a massive critical and commercial success. The album's story revolved around a junkie who is drugged into performing assassinations for an underground movement; the junkie ("Nikki") is torn over his misplaced loyalty to the cause and his love of a reformed hooker-turned-nun ("Mary", vocals by Pamela Moore) who gets in the way. "Mindcrime" has often been mentioned by critics alongside other notable concept albums like Pink Floyd's The Wall, Dream Theater's Metropolis Pt. 2, Scenes From a Memory, and The Who's Tommy. The band toured through much of 1988 and 1989 with several bands, including Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses and Metallica.
The release of Empire (1990) brought Queensrÿche to the height of their commercial popularity. It peaked at #7 and sold more than three million copies in the US, more than their previous four releases combined (it was also certified silver in the UK). The power ballad "Silent Lucidity," which featured an orchestra, became the band's first Top 10 single. While the band retained its socially conscious lyrics (touching on topics such as gun control and the environment), the arrangements on Empire were more straightforward than anything they had released to date.
The subsequent "Building Empires" tour was the first, full-fledged tour to feature Queensrÿche as a headlining act (the band had previously headlined a tour in Japan in support of "Operation: Mindcrime" and had headlined a handful of club and theater shows in the U.S. between 1984 and 1988). The group utilized their headlining status to perform Operation: Mindcrime in its entirety, as well as songs from Empire. The tour lasted 18 months, longer than any tour the band has undertaken before or since.
After taking time off to deal with personal issues, the band released Promised Land in October 1994 (a companion CD-ROM, featuring a Promised Land-themed game and other interactive features, was released in March 1996). It was a dark and intensely personal album, reflecting the mental state of the band at the time. Although the album debuted at #3 and was eventually certified platinum, it was clearly not the commercial success Empire had been. As with many other heavy metal and hard rock acts, Queensrÿche's commercial fortunes waned as grunge music (which ironically got its start in Seattle, which Bellevue, Queensrÿche's home city, is a suburb of) and alternative rock surged in popularity.

Operation: Mindcrime and success (1988-1996)
Queensrÿche released their sixth full-length studio album, Hear in the Now Frontier, in March 1997, to mixed critical and fan reception. The album debuted at #19 but quickly vanished from the charts. The musical sound and style of the album was more basic and stripped down than anything the band had released to date, and some fans and critics pointed to the grunge musical style as being a major influence on the record. Despite the reaction, the singles "Sign of the Times" and "You" received substantial airplay.
Compounding the disappointing sales of the album were issues that plagued the band on the subsequent tour. Less than one month into the Hear in the Now Frontier tour, Geoff Tate became seriously ill and the band was forced to cancel concert dates for the first time. In an even bigger blow, the band's longtime label, EMI America Records, went bankrupt during the same period. Queensrÿche was forced to use their own money to finance the remainder of the tour, which ended in August after only two months. The band played a handful of December shows in South America due to contractual obligations, and it was during this time that founding member Chris DeGarmo announced he was leaving Queensrÿche.
Although the official reasons for DeGarmo's departure have not been made public, members of the band have cited burnout and a desire to pursue interests outside of Queensrÿche as reasons for his departure. After he left Queensrÿche, DeGarmo recorded and performed with Jerry Cantrell and was in a short-lived band called Spys4Darwin, which released one EP in 2001. DeGarmo is now a commercial airline pilot.

1997–1998: Major changes
DeGarmo was replaced by guitarist and producer Kelly Gray. Gray's connections with Queensrÿche went back to the early '80s, when he was the guitarist for Myth, Geoff Tate's previous band. Gray had also previously worked as a producer for bands such as Dokken and Candlebox. Queensrÿche's first album with Gray was 1999's Q2K. It was also the first album for their new label, Atlantic Records. Musically, Q2K bore little resemblance to the progressive metal of the band's past, and also displayed stripped-down sound similar to Hear in the Now Frontier. Q2K has been called a continuation of the experimentation of Hear in the Now Frontier by Geoff Tate. Gray was not embraced by the fans, who felt that his more bluesy style did not suit Queensrÿche. Additionally, declining popularity forced the band to tour in clubs and theaters, rather than larger arenas and outdoor amphitheaters.
After the release of a greatest hits collection in 2000, Queensrÿche embarked on another tour, this time in support of Iron Maiden. This enabled the band to play Madison Square Garden for the first time. Unhappy with the lack of support they felt they received from Atlantic, Queensrÿche moved to Sanctuary Records in 2001. In July of that year, the band performed a handful of dates at the Moore Theater in Seattle, Washington. The shows were recorded and released in September 2001 as Live Evolution, the band's second live album. Kelly Gray departed Queensrÿche soon after.

Continued Experimentation (1998–2001)
The band entered the studio as a quartet in the spring of 2003 to record their eighth full-length album. In April, they announced they had been joined by Chris DeGarmo, although his future status with the band was uncertain. In July, Queensrÿche released their first and only album of new material on the Sanctuary label, Tribe. DeGarmo, who played on and co-wrote four songs, did not officially rejoin the band nor take part in the supporting tour.
Kelly Gray's official replacement turned out to be Mike Stone, who accompanied the band on the Tribe tour as second guitarist to Michael Wilton's lead. In June 2003, Queensrÿche launched a co-headlining tour featuring another popular progressive metal band, Dream Theater. The two bands alternated the opening and closing spots, and ended the shows by playing a handful of songs together. Fates Warning was the special guest for the tour. A live album and DVD were recorded during this tour- The Art of Live, including two covers performed with Dream Theater.

The Tribe Years (2001-2004)
In July 2004, Queensrÿche announced their plans to record a follow-up to 1988's Operation: Mindcrime. To generate fan interest in the upcoming album, the band hit the road in the fall of 2004 with the "An Evening With Queensrÿche" tour. The tour opened with a shortened greatest hits set followed by a revised production of Operation: Mindcrime with live actors and video; Pamela Moore reprised her role as Sister Mary. The band played a pre-recorded version of "Hostage," a track from the upcoming album, through the PA as an encore after the end of their set. The second leg of the tour began in early 2005. Before embarking on a third leg of the tour in the fall of 2005, Queensrÿche toured with Judas Priest across North America, playing an hour-long set consisting mostly of the band's older works and one song from the soon-to-be released sequel, entitled "I'm American."
Operation: Mindcrime II was released internationally on 31 March 2006, and is said to answer some of the questions posed by the first Mindcrime album. The album was Queensrÿche's first for their new label, Rhino Entertainment, to which they signed in 2005. Ronnie James Dio provided the vocals for Dr. X, the villain. Operation: Mindcrime II debuted at #14, the highest chart position for a Queensrÿche album since 1997. The group embarked on a headlining tour in support of the album, joined by Pamela Moore in her role as Sister Mary. The tour featured performances of both Mindcrime albums in their entirety. Ronnie James Dio appeared at the Gibson Amphitheatre show in Universal City, CA to perform his vocals as Dr. X on "The Chase", and was shown on a video screen at the other shows. Ronnie's appearance was recorded, and included as an extra on the 2007 DVD release Mindcrime at the Moore.
On 9 August 2007, the band announced that they would release a new greatest hits album, entitled Sign of the Times. The album was released on 28 August, 2007, and a special collector's edition featured a bonus disc including various demos and a new song, Justified, featuring Chris DeGarmo on guitar.
It was announced on 28 August 2007 that the band would release a cover album, entitled Take Cover. This is scheduled for release on November 13.

Mindcrime II (2004-present)
Geoff Tate has one solo release to date, a self-titled album released in 2002 on Sanctuary Records. Tate toured to support the album in the summer of 2002. Michael Wilton, with his band Soulbender, released a self-titled album in 2004. Scott Rockenfield and former Queensrÿche guitarist Kelly Gray are members of Slave to the System, who released a self-titled debut album in February 2006 and toured in April 2006. Rockenfield has also collaborated on a number of projects with musician Paul Speer. Rockenfield/Speer was nominated for a Grammy Award (Best Music Video, Long Form) for their 1999 release TeleVoid.
Mike Stone sings and plays bass guitar for a band featuring Black Label Society guitarist Nick Catanese and drummer Mike Froedge of Doubledrive. Their debut album will be released sometime in late 2007 or early 2008 under a not-yet-determined moniker.

Side projects

Former members

Main article: Queensrÿche discography

Aker Yards Oy, or Aker Yards' Finnish yards is a Finnish shipbuilding company. It operates three yards in Helsinki, Turku and Rauma, employing some 4,000 people. It is a part of Aker Yards, an international shipbuilding group.
The current Aker Yards Oy is a descendant of two different shipyard companies. Wärtsilä operated the shipyards of Helsinki and Turku since the 1970's. Wärtsilä's shipbuilding division went bankrupt in 1989 after merging with Valmet shipyards. Masa-Yards was established by Martin Saarikangas with financing from the shipping companies to finish the ships under construction, eventually taking over the operations of Wärtsilä's former shipyards. In the mid-90's Kvaerner purchased Masa-Yards and Kvaerner Masa-Yards was born. In 1991 the ship-building businesses of Hollming Oy of Rauma and Rauma-Repola of Pori were merged to form Finnyards. This company was purchased by Kvaerner and became Aker Finnyards. In January 2005 Kvaerner Masa-Yards and Aker Finnyards merged to form the "new" Aker Finnyards Oy. The name of the company was changed to Aker Yards Oy on June 7, 2006.
Aker Yards in Finland and its predecessors has built many luxurious cruise ships, including the very first modern purpose-built cruise ship, the Song of Norway. The most recent cruiseships build by Aker Finnyards are the three Freedom-class vessels, the first of which Freedom of the Seas was delivered for Royal Caribbean International in 2006. Freedom of the Seas and it's sister ships Liberty of the Seas and Independence of the Seas are the largest cruisehips in the world at the moment, although an even larger class of ships, the Genesis Class, is being designed by Aker Yards. Aker Yards is also responsible for the largest cruiseferry in the world, Color Line's Color Fantasy, which will get a sistership Color Magic from the yard in autumn 2007.
The company is also the principal yard for the Finnish Navy and the world's leading builder of icebreakers.

Delivered Craft

Crichton-Vulcan
Finnish Maritime Cluster

A nexus is a connection or the centre of something.
Nexus may refer to:

In computers and Internet

Nexus (Mortal Kombat), a central hub between the realms of existence in Mortal Kombat
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident, a strategy game by Mithis Entertainment
Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds, a MMORPG by Kru Interactive
Armored Core: Nexus, the eighth title in the Armored Core series
Nexus, the shadow organisation in Warzone 2100
The Nexus, the central world in Primal
The Nexus, the Protoss central building in Starcraft
Nexus, the heart and brain of the t'lan warriors in Breakdown
Nexus, a famous dagger user in the game GunZ
The Nexus Age, a hub world in Uru: Ages Beyond Myst
Nexus Crystal, an item in World of Warcraft
The "Overwatch Nexus" in Half-Life 2
The Strogg Nexus in Quake 4
The NEXUS Missiles in Unreal Tournament 2004 In games

Nexus (magazine), an international bi-monthly alternative news magazine
Nexus Books, a pornography publishing company
Nexus Editrice, an Italian company publishing games, books and magazines
Daily Nexus, the University of California, Santa Barbara student newspaper
Nexus News, an Institute of Physics publication for physics students
The Nexus (journal), a journal edited by Kerry Bolton
The Nexus, an NSPA award-winning high-school student newspaper in Poway Unified School District, San Diego, CA In music

NEXUS International Broadcasting Association, a non-profit association of broadcasters and producers
Nexus Trafikk, a Norwegian bus company
Nexus, the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive's trading name
Nexus Productions, a film and animation company based in London
Nexus Learning, a non-profit learning community based in Princeton, New Jersey/Richmond, Virginia
Nexusis a national, nonprofit organization that designs and operates a wide range of treatment programs for children and adolescents who exhibit severe emotional and behavioral problems. In fiction

NEXUS (rocket), a heavy-lift booster concept designed by General Dymanics
NEXUS (frequent traveller program), border clearance program between the United States and Canada
Nexus Grammar System, a system of analysing text
Shimano nexus, a bicycle line
Family nexus, a common viewpoint of family members in psychiatry and psychology
2C-B or Nexus, a psychedelic entheogen drug
Nexus, a provision of the Constitution of Australia
Nexus, in sales and use tax, a minimum level of presence to be required for taxes

The Haus der Kunst (literally House of Art) is an art museum in Munich, Germany. It is located at Prinzregentenstrasse 1 at the southern edge of the Englischer Garten, Munich's largest park.
The building was constructed from 1934 to 1937 following plans of architect Paul Ludwig Troost as the Third Reich's first monumental propaganda building. The museum, then called "Haus der deutschen Kunst" (House of German Art), was opened in March 1937, showing the Entartete Kunst exhibition, and was subsequently used as a showcase for what the Third Reich regarded as Germany's finest art.
After the end of World War II, the museum building was first used by the American occupation forces as an officer's mess; in that time, the building came to be known as the "P1", a shortening of its street address. The building's original purpose can still be seen in such guises as the swastika-motif mosaics in the ceiling panels of its front portico.
Beginning in 1946, the museum rooms, now partitioned into several smaller exhibition areas, started to be used as temporary exhibition space for trade shows and visiting art exhibitions. Some parts of the museum were also used to showcase works from those of Munich's art galleries that had been destroyed during the war. In 2002 the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Arts moved into the Pinakothek der Moderne. Today, while housing no permanent art exhibition of its own, the museum is still used as a showcase building for temporary exhibitions and for visiting exhibits. Among many others, the Haus der Kunst has housed the Tutankhamun and the Zeit der Staufer exhibits.
Since 1983, the museum building also houses the nightclub P1, Munich's famous high-society hang-out.

The Edinburgh People's Festival is an annual event which runs in parallel to the Edinburgh Festival. Inspired by the original aims of the Edinburgh Festival, namely, a celebration of the arts 'for the people, by the people' it looks to celebrate indigenous talent and provide low cost cultural entertainment at several venues across the city, especially in the outer schemes.
In particular it carries on the tradition of the original Edinburgh People's Festival 1951–54 and acknowledge the cultural contribution made by Councillor Jack Kane and the late Hamish Henderson.
The festival was re-established in 2002 by the Scottish Socialist Party MSP, Colin Fox who still heads up the organising committee.

PDF/X is an ISO defined subset of the PDF standard. The purpose of PDF/X is to facilitate graphics exchange, and it therefore has a series of printing related requirements, which do not apply to standard PDF files. For example all fonts need to be embedded and all images need to be CMYK or spot colors. PDF/X-3 accepts calibrated RGB colors.
The printing conditions or output intent need to be specified in the file. This can be specified in the form of standard profiles using codes, like "CGATS TR 001 SWOP".
In the PDF/X file each graphic gets its own color profile, so even though the file as a whole is CMYK, individual graphics may be RGB (with calibration information).
Active content is not allowed in a PDF/X file. This means that standard PDF features like forms, signatures, comments and embedded sounds and movies are not allowed in PDF/X.

Manos Hadjidakis (Μάνος Χατζιδάκις) (October 23, 1925–June 15, 1994) was one of the most popular Greek music composers. He was born in Xanthi, Greece. In 1962 he received an Academy Award in the category of Best Music, for his Song Never on Sunday from the film of the same name. He is widely popular among Greeks and can be credited with the introduction of bouzouki music into mainstream culture.

Musical Scores (incomplete)

Adoulotoi Sklavoi - Unsubdued Slaves - US title (1946)
Kokkinos Vrahos (1949)
Dyo Kosmi - 'The Two Worlds (1949)
Nekri Politeia - Dead City - US title (1951)
O Grousouzis - The Grouch - US title (1952)
Agni Tou Limaniou - Lily of the Harbour - US title (1952)
Pote Tin Kyriaki (Ποτέ Την Κυριακή) - Never on Sunday - US title (1960)
Το Χαμόγελο Της Τζιοκόντας - Gioconda's Smile (1964)
Reflections (1969) - Performed by the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble
Sweet Movie (1974)
Reflections (2005) - Performed by the Raining Pleasure Special appearance by Meriam performing KEMAL
Amorgos(2006)

Intellectual history refers to the history of the people who create, discuss, write about and in other ways propagate ideas. Although the field emerged from European discourses of Kulturgeschichte and Geistesgeschichte, the historical study of ideas has engaged not only western intellectual traditions, including, but not limited to, those in the far east, near east, mid-east and Africa.
Intellectual history is closely related to the history of philosophy and the history of ideas. Its central perspective suggests that ideas do not change in isolation from the people who create and use them and that one must study the culture, lives and environments of people to understand their notions and ideas. This is also frought with the sentiment of hostility towards, or mistrust of, intellectuals and intellectual pursuits known as anti-intellectualism. This may be expressed in various ways, such as attacks on the merits of science, education, or literature.

Europe and the West
Central to development of intellectual history has been the birth of scholarship in ancient China, the creation of Confucianism with its extensive exegesis of the texts of Confucius, and the active part of scholars in governments. In Korea, the yangban scholar movement drove the development of Korean intellectual history from the late Goryeo to the golden age of intellectual achievement in the Joseon dynasty.
In ancient China literati referred to the government officials who formed the ruling class in China for over two thousand years. These scholar-bureaucrats were a status group of educated laymen, not ordained priests. They were not a hereditary group as their position depended on their knowledge of writing and literature. After 200 B.C. the system of selection of candidates was influenced by Confucianism and established its ethic among the literati. The Hundred Flowers Campaign in China was largely based on the government's wish for a mobilization of intellectuals; with very sour consequences later.
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of the early Chinese sage Confucius. Confucius was the founder of the teachings of Confucianism. Confucianism is a complex system of moral, social, political, philosophical, and religious thought which has had tremendous influence on the culture and history of East Asia up to the 21st century. Some people in Europe have considered it to have been the "state religion" in East Asian countries because of governmental promotion of Confucianist values and needs.
Another avenue of intellectualism in Asia has been Buddhism. According to the Buddhist scriptures, in his lifetime, the Buddha had not answered several philosophical questions. On issues like whether the world is eternal or non-eternal, finite or infinite, unity or separation of the body and the self, complete inexistence of a person after nirvana and then death etc, the Buddha had remained silent. The scriptures explain that such questions distract from practical activity for realizing enlightenment.
In numerous Mahayana sutras and Tantras, the Buddha stresses that Dharma (Truth) and the Buddha himself in their ultimate modus cannot truly be understood with the ordinary rational mind or logic: both Buddha and Reality (ultimately One) transcend all worldly concepts. The "prajna-paramita" sutras have this as one of their major themes. What is urged is study, mental and moral self-cultivation, and veneration of the sutras, which are as fingers pointing to the moon of Truth, but then to let go of ratiocination and to experience direct entry into Liberation itself.
The Buddha in the self-styled "Uttara-Tantra", the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, insists that, while pondering upon Dharma is vital, one must then relinquish fixation on words and letters, as these are utterly divorced from Liberation and the Buddha. The Tantra entitled the "All-Creating King" (Kunjed Gyalpo Tantra) also emphasises how Buddhic Truth lies beyond the range of thought and is ultimately mysterious. The Supreme Buddha, Samantabhadra, states there:
"The mind of perfect purity [i.e. the Awakened Mind of Buddha] ... is beyond thinking and inexplicable ... It dwells in the self-perfected bliss which is deedless and self-perfected ... I am the best path of liberation. It is a path, subtle and difficult to understand, which is non-speculative and beyond thinking ... It cannot be captured in words ... It is firm, difficult to comprehend, and totally inexplicable." (The Sovereign All-Creating Mind tr. by E.K. Neumaier-Dargyay, pp. 111–112).
Also later, the famous Indian Buddhist yogi and teacher mahasiddha Tilopa discouraged any intellectual activity in his 6 words of advice. Buddhist missionaries, however, often faced philosophical questions from other religions whose answers they themselves did not know. For those, who have attachment to intellectualism, Buddhist scholars produced a prodigious quantity of intellectual theories, philosophies and worldview concepts. See e.g. Abhidharma, Buddhist philosophy and Reality in Buddhism.

Asia and the Far East
In the Near East, Islam and modernity encompass the relation and compatibility between the phenomenon of modernity, its related concepts and ideas, and the religion of Islam. In order to understand the relation between Islam and modernity, one point should be made in the beginning. Both Islam and modernity are not simple and unified entities. They are abstract quantities which could not be reduced into simple categories. The history of Islam, like that of other religions, is a history of different interpretations and approaches to Islam. "There is no a-historical Islam that is outside the process of historical development." Similarly, modernity is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon rather than a unified and coherent phenomenon. It has historically had different schools of thoughts moving in many directions.
Ali al-Masudi is a well known Arab intellectual in history, known as the "Herodotus of the Arabs." He often encourages his readers to consult other books he has written, expecting these to be accessible to his readership. They also note the stark contrast between contemporary European conditions confronting say the author of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and this highly literate Islamic world. He was the first Arab to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work, "The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems", a world history. Ibn Khaldūn was a famous Arab Muslim historian, historiographer, demographer, economist, philosopher and sociologist born in present-day Tunisia. He is regarded as a forefather of demography, historiography, philosophy of history, and sociology, and is viewed as one of the forerunners of modern economics. He is best known for his Muqaddimah "Prolegomenon".
Persian philosophy can be traced back as far as to Old Iranian philosophical traditions and thoughts which originated in ancient Indo-Iranian roots and were considerably influenced by Zarathustra's teachings. Throughout Iranian history and due to remarkable political and social changes such as the Macedonian, Arab and Mongol invasions of Persia a wide spectrum of schools of thoughts showed a variety of views on philosophical questions extending from Old Iranian and mainly Zoroastrianism-related traditions to schools appearing in the late pre-Islamic era such as Manicheism and Mazdakism as well as various post-Islamic schools. Iranian philosophy after Arab invasion of Persia, is characterized by different interactions with the Old Iranian philosophy, the Greek philosophy and with the development of Islamic philosophy. The Illumination School and the Transcendent Philosophy are regarded as two of the main philosophical traditions of that era in Persia.
Intellectual movements in Iran involve the Iranian experience of modernism, through which Iranian modernity and its associated art, science, literature, poetry, and political structures have been evolving since the 19th century. Religious intellectualism in Iran develops gradually and subtly. It reached its apogee during the Persian Constitutional Revolution (1906-11). The process involved numerous philosophers, sociologists, political scientists and cultural theorists. However the associated art, cinema and poetry remained to be developed.
The African Renaissance is a concept popularized by South African President Thabo Mbeki in which the African people and nations are called upon to solve the many problems troubling the African continent. It reached its height in the late 1990s but continues to be a key part of the post-apartheid intellectual agenda. The elements of this would eventually be seen to comprise the African Renaissance, social cohesion, democracy, economic rebuilding and growth and the establishing of Africa as a significant player in geo-political affairs.
In Medieval Muslim Algeria, spanning from the 600s to the 1600s, North Africa benefited economically and culturally during the Almoravid period, which lasted until 1147. Al-Andalus was a great source of artistic and intellectual inspiration for the African continent. The most famous writers of Andalus worked in the Almoravid court, and the builders of the Grand Mosque of Tilimsan, completed in 1136, used as a model the Grand Mosque of Córdoba.
Today, Taban Lo Liyong is one of Africa's well-known poets and writers of fiction and literary criticism. His eccentric ideologies, as well as his on-going denigration of the post-colonial system of education in East Africa, have inspired criticism and controversy since the late 1960's.
With the rise of Afrocentrism, a recently developed academic, philosophical, and historical approach to the study of world history, the push away from Eurocentrism has led to the focus on the contributions of African people and their model of world civilization and history. Afrocentrism aims to shift the focus from a perceived European-centered history to an African-centered history. More broadly, Afrocentrism is concerned with distinguishing the influence of European and Oriental peoples from African achievements.

Africa and the Middle East

Perry Anderson
R.G Collingwood
Robert Darnton
Hamid Dabashi
Jacques Barzun
David Bates
Isaiah Berlin
Mark Bevir
Marc Bloch
Fernand Braudel
Ernst Cassirer
Roger Chartier
Merle Curti
Norbert Elias
Lucien Febvre
Michel Foucault
Peter Gay
Carlo Ginzburg
Anthony Grafton
H. Stuart Hughes
Russell Jacoby
Martin Jay
Tony Judt
Alan Charles Kors
Dominick LaCapra
Arthur Lovejoy
Allan Megill
Louis Menand
Perry Miller
J. G. A. Pocock
Carl Schorske
Quentin Skinner
Fritz Stern
Hayden White
Peter Watson
Cornel West
Richard Wolin