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SHUTTLE MISSION STS-115 ATLANTIS
SHUTTLE MISSION STS-115 ATLANTIS
TUESDAY AUGUST 1, 2006 8:33 PM ET
Atlantis Awaits Trip to Launch Pad
IMAGE: In the Vehicle Assembly Building, the orbiter Atlantis
sits on the mobile launcher platform where it was joined to the external tank and twin solid rocket boosters. The entire "stack"
will roll to Launch Pad 39B atop the crawler transporter. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder
+ View Larger Image
SHUTTLE MISSION STS-115 ATLANTIS
Patchwork quilt of maple leaves,
Crimson and yellow.
Herringbone smoke rings curling
wispily
From chimney tops.
Hemline stitching of silver brocade
rain
Along city streets.
Dotted swiss gardens embroidered
In appliqued pumpkins.
Russet-blanketed hills basted
With lacy frost.
Autumn tapestry reposing
In a framework of splendor.
Well
- many must begin to consider their educations again as August signals the Back To School
membranes for many of us.
For some, this means
Back to Business - as some of August's more interesting offerings demonstrate.
http://www.haribo.com/planet/us/startseite.php
http://www.haribo.com/planet/us/info/products.php
Parallax is a privately held company located in Rocklin, CA. We design and manufacturer microcontroller development tools and small single-board computers that are used by
electronic engineers, educational institutions, and hobbyists. Our current product line consists of BASIC Stamp microcontrollers
and development software, SX chips and programmer/debuggers, project boards, sensors, educational tools, robotics kits, accessories
and the Propeller chip.
SHUTTLE MISSION STS-115 ATLANTIS
THE TIGER WOODS FOUNDATION GOT ITS START IN 1996, AND WITH THE HELP OF CELEBRATIES DONATING THEIR TIME AND TALENT TO
AN ANNUAL FUND RAISING EVENT -"TIGERJAM". MANY PEOPLE SHOULD WELCOME MR. WOODS' EFFORTS AT CONTRIBUTING TO THE QUALITY AND AWARENESS OF EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
IN AMERICA. WELL DONE, CHAMP!
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SHUTTLE MISSION STS-115 ATLANTIS
SHUTTLE MISSION STS-115 ATLANTIS
EVEN THE YOUNGEST OF AMERICANS CANNOT ESCAPE
THE REALITIES OF WAR IN TODAY'S CLIMATE OF REGIME CHANGE AND POLITICAL RESTRUCTURING.
HOWEVER
THE CHANGES IN THE NEAR FUTURE TAKE PLACE, THE RESULTS WILL BE IMPORTANT FOR MANY YEARS TO COME. ONE SOURCE OF INFORMATION
AND PERSPECTIVE REGARDING THESE SERIOUS EVENTS IN HISTORY IS THE US GOVERNMENT. EVEN THE MOST ASTUTE OF AMERICAN POLITICIANS
MUST RECOGNIZE AND ACCEPT THE REALITIES OF TODAY'S FUTURE AND RESPECTFULLY RESPOND AND CONDUCT THEMSELVES ACCORDINGLY. IF
NOT, AS A CONSEQUENCE OF POLITICAL INACTION, AN INTELLECTUAL CLIMATE OF JOURNALISTIC REVOLUTION WILL REMAIN AS THE ONLY VOICE
OF THE PEOPLE AND THEIR STORY. THE REST WILL BE LEFT, AS ONCE WAS SAID IN EARNEST, TO HISTORY.
Betsy Ross's Original
NOBLE HOUSE REPRESENTS MANY REFERENCES,
MOSTLY LODGING ACCOMODATIONS AND LUXURY RESORTS, BUT ANOTHER NAMESAKE PROVIDES FINE TAILORED PRODUCTS UTILIZING
A DISTICTINCTIVE MARKETING STRATEGY: NOBLE HOUSE TAILORS.
A beautifully bespoke suit speaks volumes
about its wearer
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Living well Suits you, sir: A beautifully bespoke suit
speaks volumes about its wearer.....
By Nicola Doyle
You wouldn’t
expect James Bond to take on the world in a Marks and Spencer suit would you? Even an off-the-rack Gucci or Givenchy doesn’t
cut it with our dashing hero. Instead Bond opts for bespoke tailored suits that cut as fine a figure as its wearer.
Men who have their suits tailored for them experience a level of quality, service,
selection and individuality that simply cannot be found in off-the-rack garments – not to mention the kudos and confidence
that comes from wearing a beautifully bespoke item of the finest fit and fabric.
Bespoke suits are custom fitted to
each individual and can be made with special details, such as hidden pockets or a flamboyant lining, not available in off-the-rack
suits. Customers also have the choice of thousands of fabrics and styles – allowing you to express your own personal
style as subtly or as boldly as you dare. |
|
.....
When
it comes to bespoke, it’s not just London that boasts quality. Asian cities like Singapore and Hong Kong also feature
speciality tailors who are a cut above the rest. Made-to-measure suits have been a Hong Kong speciality since the first half
of the last century, when it was reputed to be home to more than 1,000 tailors. Today, the region’s legendary tailor
shops number less than 250, with the most skilled and revered houses still going strong.
The Mandarin Hotel is the
most venerable house. Famous for its European-cut suits (as good as Savile Row) it has a list of distinguished clients, including
ex-governor Chris Patten (Richard Nixon was also outfitted here before his China trip in 1972). Also at the top end of the
market, Hong Kong firms such as Ascot Chang, NobleHouse and Sam’s Tailor, have outfitted everyone from European royal
families and American and British politicians to a range of investment bankers, fund managers, CEO’s and directors.
“Yes,
there are fewer tailors,” says Vijay Wadhwani, master tailor at NobleHouse. “However, they are committed. Customers
still want tailored clothing. People don’t get service very often nowadays and we offer it in abundance. With this in
mind I see only growth in our future.”
Wadhwani, who learnt his trade in Hong Kong more than 36 years ago from
his uncle, a master tailor of the 1950s and 60s, is typical of the surviving Hong Kong tailors who continue the tradition
of quality, in both product and service.
“Bespoke is actually a term that dates from the 17th century when tailors
held the full lengths of cloth in their premises,” explains Wadhwani. “When a customer chose a length of material,
it was said to have ‘been spoken for’. Hence a tailor who makes your clothes individually, to your specific personal
requirements, is called bespoke.”
Offering some of the best bespoke tailoring in Hong Kong, the first thing that
stands out about NobleHouse, where clients pay between US$550 and US$1,100 (depending on fabrics chosen) for a custom-made
suit, is its skilled staff and dedication to detail.
Most have over 40 years, and before any garment is made, more
than 35 detailed measurements are taken and a personal pattern hand drafted and cut,” says Wadhwani. “A single
tailor is given the parts to sew together, from the earliest fitting stages to the final completed suit. Each suit is 90%
handmade, even down to the buttonholes.”
.....
Whichever country you choose to shop in, there’s no doubt
that a bespoke suit sorts the men from the boys. Being measured by a master tailor, dedicated to achieving a perfect style
and fit just for you, is arguably the ultimate way to dress.
Make an Appointment
http://noblesuit.com/about.html | |
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Noble
House
Noble House is a novel by James Clavell, published in 1981 and set in Hong Kong in 1963. It is part of Clavell's Asian Saga.
It is a massive book, well over 1000 pages, with dozens of characters
and numerous intermingling plot lines. It was made into a miniseries in 1988 starring Pierce Brosnan.
The Noble House also is a nickname of Struan's, the trading company featured prominently in
most of Clavell's novels.
Plot
The tai-pan, Ian Dunross, struggles to rescue Struan's from the precarious financial
position left over from his predecessor. To do this, he seeks partnership with an American millionaire, while trying to ward
off Quillan Gornt, who seeks to destroy Struan's once and for all. Meanwhile, Chinese communists, Taiwanese nationalists,
and Soviet spies illegally vie for influence in Hong Kong while the British government seeks to prevent this. And nobody, it seems, can
get anything done without enlisting the aid of Hong Kong's criminal underworld.
Main characters
Minor characters
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Asian Saga)
Jump to: navigation, search
The Asian Saga is a series of six novels written by James Clavell between 1962 and 1993. The novels all center around the Europeans
in Asia, and together they explore the impact on East and West of the meeting of these two distinct civilzations.
Overview
The books in narrative order are:
Shogun: Set in feudal Japan, 1600.
Tai-Pan: Set in Hong Kong, 1841.
Gai-Jin: Set in Japan, 1862.
King Rat: Set in a Japanese POW camp, 1945.
Noble House: Set in Hong Kong, 1963.
Whirlwind: Set in Iran, 1979.
This is not the order in which the novels were originally published; it is therefore possible to read
them in virtually any order. The first book of the saga to be published was King Rat in 1962, and the name "Asian Saga" was
not applied to the series until after the publication of Shogun.
Apart from Shogun and King Rat, all the books follow the dealings of the great trading company Struan's, the Noble House of Asia, (based on Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited), its founder Dirk Struan, and his various descendants. Gai-Jin
provides the major link between the Shogun and Struans storylines, while a character from King Rat appears in Noble House.
Some of the characters make appearances in multiple books, and many characters from one book are referred
to in later books. Robert Armstrong, for example, is a major character in both
Noble House and Whirlwind.
In total, there is a large number of characters throughout the series, with very complex family relationships
and a great deal of history that is hinted at but never described in detail.
After the publication of Whirlwind, Clavell wrote a shorter version of the story which focused on two
characters from the book. Entitled Escape: The Love Story from Whirlwind, the book is generally not considered an official
part of the Asian Saga and is considered quite rare; nonetheless some reviewers said it helped flesh out several aspects of
the original novel.
Clavell died in 1994 after the publication of Gai-Jin; it
was reported that he was planning a further entry in the Asian Saga series at the time of his death. King Rat was not originally
considered part of the Asian Saga, but was added to it as the series expanded.
[edit]
Plot
[edit]
List of tai-pans of Struan's
1st tai-pan: Dirk Struan, ?-1841
2nd tai-pan: Culum Struan, 1841-1862
3rd tai-pan: Lochlin Struan
4th tai-pan: Dirk Dunross, ?-1894
5th tai-pan: unidentified, perhaps Lochlin Struan, 1895-1915
6th tai-pan: Ross Lechie Struan, 1915
7th tai-pan: Ross Struan, 1915-?
8th tai-pan: Colin Dunross
9th tai-pan: Alastair Struan, ?-1960
10th tai-pan: Ian Dunross, 1960-?
11th tai-pan: David MacStruan
12th tai-pan: Linbar Struan
Lochlin Struan became tai-pan for a second time after the death of Dirk Dunross in 1894, and lived until
1915. There is no mention of a fifth tai-pan, so presumably he is counted as both the third and fifth tai-pan.
Hag Struan was tai-pan in everything but name from 1841
until her death in 1917.
[edit]
The half coins of Jin-qua
In 1841 when Struan's was on the brink of collapse, Dirk Struan received a loan of silver from the merchant
Jin-qua in exchange for a series of favors. Among
these were four bronze coins, split in half. Anyone who brought a half coin to the tai-pan of the Noble House would be granted whatever
he asked, whether legal or illegal. All future tai-pans must swear to keep this bargain, before learning the details, if they
were to become tai-pan.
Of the four coins, one was kept by Jin-qua, one given to the warlord Wu Fang Choi, one given to Gordon Chen, and one given out in secret.
The first coin was brought to Dirk Struan in 1841 by Wu Fang Choi.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. Click here to skip spoilers.
The second coin was brought in 1894 by Chiang Wu-tah. He asked that Noble House give aid and sanctuary
to Sun Yat-sen and to assist him to overthrow the Manchu dynasty. This is recounted in Noble House, chapter 60.
The story of the third coin is a major plot line in Noble House. The coin is owned by Struan's trusted compradore
Phillip Chen, handed down to him from his grandfather Gordon
Chen. However, his son John Chen learns the secret of the coin, steals it,
and bargains it and its secret away to American businessman Lincoln Bartlett. Before Bartlett takes possession of the coin,
John Chen is kidnapped and murdered. When Phillip Chen enlists his underworld cousin Four Finger Wu to help locate John, Wu discovers the coin
in the possession of one of the kidnappers, and takes it for his own, knowing its secret.
The fate of the fourth coin is not addressed in the saga.
[edit]
Adaptations
As of 2006, all installments of the Asian Saga except Whirlwind and Gai-Jin have been adapted for film
or television:
King Rat, released in 1965, starred George Segal and was nominated for two Academy Awards for Art Direction and Black and White Cinematography.
Shogun was adapted by NBC as a television miniseries in 1980. Starring
Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune and Yoko Shimada, the production was one of the highest rated
programs of its kind ever broadcast. The nine-hour miniseries was edited down to two hours for a theatrical release in 1981.
The miniseries was nominated for 14 Emmy Awards, winning three including Best Limited Series.
It also won three Golden Globe Awards.
Tai-Pan was released as a theatrical film in 1986,
starring Bryan Brown and Joan Chen. The film was a critical and box office failure.
Noble House was adapted as a TV miniseries starring Pierce Brosnan in 1988 and was also a ratings success.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Asian_Saga"
Categories: Asian Saga | Series of books
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This page was last modified 03:43, 15 August 2006.
 
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Israel must fight war on two fronts
Barely three weeks of fighting in northern Israel and southern
Lebanon is yielding battle fatigue. Not among the warring parties, mind you, rather among those caught in the crossfire (understandably),
but also a number of interested parties who, for the most part, wish Israel ill. Even so, Israel deserves a secure northern
border, free of terrorist attacks, not less its neighbors.
At first, the palpable nature of Hezbollah's aggression, not
to mention the ominous implications for Arab nations if it is unchecked, not only stirred support among feckless European
nations, but even among those in the Middle East who know full well the connections long maintained between Hezbollah, not
to mention Hamas, and rogue nations like Syria and Iran. But as strong and as appropriate (not "disproportionate") as Israel's
reaction to dozens of rocket attacks on its cities with full-scale assaults on enemy rocket and command centers in southern
Lebanon, it was evidently not prepared for the protracted war made possible by Iranian rocket makers and Syrian delivery systems.
As I indicated last week, the fact that Hezbollah callously
and cynically plants its munitions and leaders in the middle of Lebanese communities means that when Israel counterattacks
it causes considerable "collateral damage," damage which terrorist spokesmen and their allies can trumpet to the world as
evidence of Israeli "aggression." Not a little of this propaganda is inspired by deceitful men who tell credulous (or worse)
CNN and other news organizations that what they see is precisely what propagandists tell them.
The upshot of all this is that, between the strategic calculations
of Hezbollah and Hamas, and Israel's less-than-lightning speed in taking out sources of their aggression, an impatient "United
Nations" and jittery neighboring states now are pressuring Israel to agree to a cease fire, which it is manifestly not in
Israel's best interest to do. Israel's leaders know that if they do not succeed in cleaning up the nest of vipers now threatening
its existence, it problems will multiply in the future from an emboldened and stronger enemy.
One of the basic rules of thumb in international relations (excluding
the few nations either principled or powerful enough to ignore it) is to be on the winning side. As long as Israel appeared
to be making headway, much of the world cut her some slack. But when the length and cost of the operation (for the easily
cowed) become too great, the tide of opinion shifted.
It should be noted that while Middle Eastern nations have little
or no love for Israel, they have great reason to fear Iran . All that tough anti-Israeli talk from Iran's Hitler-like leader
may be seen outside that region as merely what it seems to be, but those in close proximity to the Shiite regime run by mullahs
see themselves as possible victims. After all, the same rockets that can reach Israel can easily fly to Saudi Arabia, Jordan,
Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Turkey.
Thus, Israel's victory in its war against terrorist organizations
controlled by the Iranian regime also means security for nearby regimes. But if Israel falters or cannot sustain international
support, the calculus shifts to doing what is necessary to stay in the good graces of Iran and its extensions in Lebanon and
the Palestinian authority. In plain words, it's called covering your hide.
The stakes are huge in the current conflict. Israel must prevail
not only to protect itself but also to allow its neighbors to breathe a little easier in the face of the growing Iranian threat,
made more frightening by the possibility of that regime developing an armed nuclear capability.
It is unfortunate that Israel allowed itself to be ensnared
in the pointless "peace process" devised by the Clinton Administration, although it has had the good fortune of strong support
from the Bush Administration. In the powder keg that is the Middle East, Israel must always be armed enough not only to repel
attacks but also to deter them in the first place.
No concessions that Israel has made, such as land for peace,
or any others now being hatched among international busy bodies, will be enough to satisfy or restrain those dedicated to
its destruction. Nor will these be enough to block the ambitions of the current regional bully, Iran.
Let Israel do the kind of work it did in 1981 when it bombed
an Iraqi nuclear facility as the world breathed a sigh of relief. Israel is the nation of choice, the "chosen people" as it
were, for hard jobs nobody else wants.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Richard Reeb taught political science, philosophy and journalism
at Barstow College from 1970 to 2003. He is the author of "Taking Journalism Seriously: 'Objectivity' as a Partisan Cause"
(University Press of America, 1999). He can be contacted at rhreeb@verizon.net |
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