 | Last login: 7 hours agoAloke is a 53 year old guy from Calcutta(kolkata), WB, India. We live in a fantasy world. I know this because I live in that world, and I actually receive my e-mail there.And, sometimes when I don't ,I think I am having a bad dream.......
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- Gustave Doré biography
 Jun 19, 5:00am  (2 reviews) biographies http://www.artbible.info/art/biography/g... 
GUSTAVE DORé
(1832-1883 )
French illustrator, painter, and sculptor.
Doré was born in Strasbourg and his first illustrated story was published at the age of fifteen. He began work as a literary illustrator in Paris and commissions include works by Rabelais, Balzac, Milton and Dante.
 In 1853 Doré was asked to illustrate the works of Lord Byron. This commission was followed by additional work for British publishers, including a new illustrated English Bible. In 1863, he illustrated a French edition of Cervantes's Don Quixote, and his illustrations of the knight and his squire Sancho Panza have become so famous that they have influenced subsequent readers, artists, and stage and film directors' ideas of the physical "look" of the two characters. Doré also illustrated an oversized edition of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven", an endeavor that earned him 30,000 francs from publisher Harper & Brothers in 1883.
 However it is with Dante's Inferno (1861) that his fame grew world wide. Doré was a skilled draughtsman (drawing directly onto woodblocks), theatrical, poetic, versatile, and incredibly prolific. He was often criticized for his fecundity and for the rapidity of his work, having produced more than 8, 000 wood engravings, 1, 000 lithographs, 400 oil paintings, and 30 works of sculpture.
 Anecdotes told frequently about Doré relate how he began to draw when about the age of four, that he always had a pencil in hand, and that he preferred his pencils sharpened at both ends. With little formal training, Doré began as a young comicstrip artist, a boy genius, at the age of 15 illustrating a parody of Greek mythology, Les Travaux d'Hercule (Labours of Hercules, 1847), and evolved into a literary artist illustrating the works of Rabelais, Balzac, Milton, Chateaubriand, Byron, Hugo, Shakespeare, and Tennyson.
- Jun 19, 4:51am
 Doré elevated illustration/wood engraving to the level of fine art. Doré's illustrations in Balzac's Contes Drolatiques (Droll Stories, 1855) are often regarded as transitional, moving him towards a more serious or higher stage of art, to literary folios, to painting, to sculpture, to the English, and to religious art.
 An immensely popular Doré folio, Contes de fées (Perrault's Fairy Tales) found its way to a first English translation (The Fairy Realm, 1865) in verse by Tom Hood the Younger. Nine tales were included: `Hopo' my Thumb' (`Little Tom Thumb'), `Sleeping Beauty in the Wood', `Donkey‐Skin', `Puss in Boots', `Bluebeard', `Little Red Riding Hood', `Cinderella', `The Fair' (`The Fairies'), and `Ricky of the Tuft'. His illustrations of the Perrault fairy tales are generally considered to be classics, and he set a standard of fairy tale illustration that few artists have met even today.
The first Doré book to be translated into English was Le Chevalier Jaufré (Jaufry the Knight, 1856), a romance of chivalry written by Jean Bernard Lafon (pseudonym, Mary Lafon). Contemporary criticism of Doré's work was mixed; some critics denounced him for his inability to paint as a painter would; others for the horror, lewdness, and gloom they saw in his engravings. Most seemed to acknowledge that his art was powerful and highly imaginative.
Doré continued to illustrate books until his death in Paris in 1883. He is buried in the city's Père Lachaise Cemetery.
 This is for my friend Extranjero , who appreciates the engravings of Doré.
- Zubin Mehta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Jun 17, 4:15am
 (1 review) opera-music http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zubin_Mehta   ZUBIN_MEHETA_______
(1936- present)
Zubin Mehta is one of the greatest conductors of western classical music of all times.
"Born to the baton" aptly describes the extraordinary career of Zubin Mehta. A native of India,Zubin currently holds the music directorships of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He was the conductor and director of both the New York the Montreal Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras.
 Born in 1936 in Bombay, India, Zubin Mehta grew up in a home filled with music. His father was a co-founder of the Bombay Symphony, and the young Mehta heard chamber music and Beethoven quartets before he heard a symphony. He learned to sing what he heard before he could read music.
At the age of sixteen, Mehta began conducting concerto accompaniments, leading the orchestra when his father was away on concert tours. At eighteen, Mehta abandoned his medical studies to pursue a career in music at the Academy of Music in Vienna. "I always had the intention of becoming a conductor, not just because I wanted to wave a stick, but because orchestral music appeals to me most," he said.
 By the time he was twenty-five, Mehta had conducted both the Vienna and the Berlin Philharmonics and was the music director of the Montreal Symphony. In 1962, at age twenty-six, he became the youngest conductor of a major American orchestra when the Los Angeles Philharmonic appointed him music director. In 1978, he accepted the music directorship of the New York Philharmonic. Mehta's powerful stage presence translates into a strong, provocative management style. "In Los Angeles [as compared to New York] I'm the absolute boss. It's my orchestra," he said.
An intriguing question is the role that being Indian has played in the success of his career. "Mehta's career in this internationally minded age has possibly profited from the exotic value attached to being the only India-born conductor to attain prominence," speculated Albert Goldberg, music critic of the Los Angeles Times. "But [Mehta] does not trade on such externals....His musical abilities alone have been sufficient," concluded Goldberg. "Zubin has one of the best techniques around," agreed Los Angeles Philharmonic tympanist William Kraft. "Even the way he holds the baton makes it easier for the orchestra to follow him."
- Jun 17, 4:12am
 In addition to his unquestioned talent, audiences respond to Mehta's impassioned, almost spiritual, performances and to his personal magnetism. Mehta, whose name means "powerful sword," understands the importance of showmanship on stage.
Mehta retains strong ties to his native country and still retains his Indian citizenship. He has taken the New York Philharmonic to Bombay, and when the Festival of India came to the United States, its gala opening was led by Mehta conducting the New York Philharmonic.
 Numerous honors have been bestowed on Mehta, including the Padma Bhushan (Order of the Lotus)by the Indian government, Nikisch Ring, the Vienna Philharmonic Ring of Honor, and the Hans von Bulow medal bestowed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Mehta has received the Defender of Jerusalem Award, and is an honorary citizen of the city of Tel Aviv. He is also the only non-Israeli ever to receive the Israel Prize. In 1976 the Italian government awarded him the honorary title of Commendatore. In 2001 he was made a member of the French Legion of Honor, and in 2004 he was named conductor laureate of the Munich Philharmonic.
Mehta looks forward to continuing his participation on the international music scene. On June 20, 1994, from the burned out shell of the National Library in Sarajevo, Mehta conducted Sarajevo's orchestra and chorus in a benefit that was broadcast around the globe. He is a leader in the classical music world, staging events to bring performance of great musical works to the largest possible audience.
- The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Metro | Cancer double blow for boy...
- Jun 15, 2:32am (1 review) cancer, kindness-foundation, real-life-story http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090522/js...
 
SANDIP-SHARMA
(1987-present)
The Kindness Foundation has extended its hand to a 12-year-old boy, who battles a chronic vision problem to do well in school and has been forced to quit studies, with both his parents being diagnosed with cancer within 10 months of one another.
 Till a year ago, the Sharmas were like any other lower middle class family -- living on a shoestring budget but finding happiness in son Sandip's progress at school and the small things of life that money can't buy. Then things started going horribly wrong. Between May 2008 and March 2009, Ramakant Sharma, 40, was diagnosed with throat cancer and wife Sunita Devi, 35, with cancer of the oesophagus.
Sandip, a Class VI student,dropped out of school after his father was forced to quit his job."Our son scored 80 per cent in math in his second term but we haven't been able to send him to school since. We can't even afford the monthly tuition fee of Rs 200," said Sunita Devi, bedridden and barely audible.
Ramakant gave up his job in a sari shop two months ago because he was "too weak to continue". "I feel so helpless at not being able to afford my wife's and my own treatment, or pay for our son's education," he said.
 Kindness Foundation has pledged to foot all the medical bills and take care of Sandip's studies and look after the family with the help of Mr. Manoj Kumar Jain, Chairman of the Jain Group of Industries who has extended all support .
The Foundation wants to admit Sandip to a boarding school but he wants to attend a Day School so that he can take care of his parents. We had to bow down to his wishes as this is what is kindness all about.
Sandip has got a new eye-glass. There is attempt to place him in a good school. Both the parents are under treatment-the father just out of a nursing home and the mother admitted for treatment. Efforts are being made to get a bank account opened, as all financial help could be deposited to form a corpus fund.
Sandip is smiling, but only just, praying for the fast recovery of his parents.
- General Motors | Corporate Information | GM
- Jun 12, 3:38am (1 review) http://www.gm.com/corporate?evar24=Reinv...
  GENERAL MOTORS
(1908-2009)
General Motors (GM) was founded in 1908, in Flint, Michigan, as a holding company for Buick, then controlled by William C. Durant. It acquired Oldsmobile later that year. In 1909, Durant brought in Cadillac, Elmore, Oakland (later known as Pontiac) and several others.
 William Durant (December 8, 1861-March 18, 1947) was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry, the founder of General Motors and Chevrolet who created the system of multi-brand holding companies with different lines of cars.Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he was the grandson of Michigan governor Henry H. Crapo.
 In 1909, General Motors also acquired the Reliance Motor Truck Company of Owosso, Michigan, and the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan, the predecessors of GMC Truck. Durant lost control of GM in 1910 to a bankers' trust, because of the large amount of debt taken on in its acquisitions coupled with a collapse in new vehicle sales. A few years later, Durant started the Chevrolet Motor car company and through this he secretly purchased a controlling interest in GM.
 Durant took back con- trol of the company after one of the most dramatic proxy wars in American business history. Shortly after, he again lost control, this time for good, after the new vehicle market collapsed. Alfred Sloan was picked to take charge of the corporation and led it to its post war global dominance. This unprecedented growth of GM would last into the early 1980s when it employed 349,000 workers and 150 assembly plants.
In late 2008 GM, along with Chrysler, received loans from the American, Canadian, and Ontario governments to avoid bankruptcy resulting from the late-2000s recession, record oil prices, mismanagement, and fierce competition . On February 20, 2009, GM's Saab division filed for reorganization in a Swedish court after being denied loans from the Swedish government. On April 27, 2009, amid ongoing financial problems and restructuring efforts, GM announced that it would phase out the Pontiac brand by the end of 2010.
- Jun 12, 3:32am
 As of April 24, 2009, GM has received US$15.4 billion in loans from the US Treasury Department under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). GMAC, a financing company held 49% by GM, has received US$5 billion in loans under the same program, while GM has received an additional US$1 billion loan to buy more equity in GMAC. General Motors Canada, 100% owned by GM, has received a combined loan commitment of C$3 billion from the Canadian and Ontario governments.
 General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection on June 1, 2009, with a plan to re-emerge as a smaller and less debt burdened organization in several months. As ranked by total assets, the bankruptcy is the fourth-largest in U.S. history, following Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Washington Mutual and WorldCom Inc.
- Google mentor Rajeev Motwani dies in drowning accident- Internet -Infotech...
- Jun 8, 2:03am (1 review) google, biography, internet-language, death, infotech http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Info...
  RAJEEV MOTWANI
(1962-2009)
Google mentor, Rajeev Motwani is dead. Computer science professor from India, who mentored Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and was instrumental in the search engine's creation was reportedly found dead in the swimming pool of his California home on 5th.of June 2009.
 Rajeev Motwani, the Stanford professor of computer science known best for advising Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, passed away today unexpectedly. Widely praised for his investing acumen -- having backed both Google and PayPal early on -- he will be remembered for his genuine passion for teaching and technology.
Motwani was born in Jammu and Kashmir, India in 1962, and grew up in New Delhi. His father was in the Indian Army. The boy from St Columbus School wanted to become a mathematician and went on to get his bachelor's degree in computer science from IIT Kanpur, India in 1983.Senior faculty members who had taught him recalled Motwani was an exceptionally bright student. "We expected a lot from him.... We could see a lot of potential when he was a student and he lived up to it," said Harish Karnick, a professor.
 Prior to his involvement with Google, Motwani founded the Mining Data at Stanford project (MIDAS), an umbrella organization for several groups looking into new and innovative data management concepts. He co-authored a book titled Randomized Algorithms, as well as produced numerous technology patents. For his work, he received a list of awards, including the prestigious Godel Prize, the Okawa Foundation Research Award and the Arthur Sloan Research Fellowship.
The Google mentor continued his association with the tech school. He was a member of the advisory board of the institute's Research Foundation.
"His legacy and personality live on in the students, projects and companies he has touched," Brin of Google writes : "Today, whenever you use a piece of technology, there is a good chance a little bit of Rajeev Motwani is behind it."
 This is for Analepisis who likes to use Google.
- Ernst Haeckel - New World Encyclopedia
- Jun 4, 9:39pm (1 review) environment, biographies http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entr...
  ERNST HAECKEL
(1834-1919)
The German biologist and natural philosopher Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel was famous for his work in evolutionary theory, and expounder of the term, 'ecology'.
Ernst Haeckel was born in Potsdam, Germany, in 1834, to Carl and Charlotte Haeckel. His father was the chief administrator for religious and educational affairs in Merseburg, while his mother was the daughter of a privy councillor in Berlin. Haeckel thus had the social advantage of growing up in an educated and cultured family. He was publicly educated at the Domgymnasium in Merseburg, graduating in 1852. He then, on the advice of his parents, studied medicine at Berlin, later at Würzburg and Vienna, before returning to Berlin to earn his medical degree in 1857.
 In 1858 he passed the state medical examination, but he did not practice medicine. In fact, he had never been truly interested in being a physician, only pursuing that degree for his parents' sake. Yet he discovered, after initial reluctance, that medical school would provide him with the most solid foundation on which to build a scientific career. It was in this medical training that Haeckel met many of the most important biologists of his day. At Würzburg he studied under Albert von Kölliker and Franz Leydig, learning embryological and comparative anatomy as well as perfecting his skills in microscopical investigations - later to prove essential for his research in ontogeny and phylogeny.
 It was also at Würzburg that Haeckel's philosophical views began to develop, confronted as he was by mechanistic and materialistic views of life developed by Rudolf Virchow and Carl Vogt and expressed by young scientists and physicians with whom he came into contact. In response to such strongly asserted materialism Haeckel's own Christian beliefs began to be transformed, and though he never relinquished the idea of god, his own god was eventually so radically changed that it seemed scarcely personal, perhaps nothing more than the principle of causality in the universe. Meanwhile, his medical education continued. At Berlin in 1854-1855 Haeckel studied under Johannes Müller, whom he greatly respected as the paradigm of the great scientist. Under Müller, he increased his understanding of comparative anatomy and he was introduced to marine zoology, one of Müller's specialties.
- Jun 4, 9:39pm
  In 1858, after finishing his medical studies and final examination, Karl Gegenbaur offered him the chance of a future professorship in zoology at Jena if he would first undertake a zoological research expedition in the Mediterranean. This research occupied his time from 1859 to 1860 and resulted in the publication in 1862 of The Radiolarians, in which he announced his support of Darwinism. Haeckel determined to reinterpret all of morphology (study and comparison of animal forms) in terms of the theory of evolution, which meant the linking of animal species phylogenetically through "geneological" trees. He argued that all processes could be reduced to mechanical-materialistic causes, that evolution was driven by such causality, and that the true philosophy of nature should be Monism, a system stressing the unity of mind and matter, in contrast to all vitalistic or teleological dualism stressing the separation of mind and matter. He differed from Darwin in two fundamental ways - Haeckel's was the more speculative mind, and he relied much more upon the Lamarckian principle of the inheritance of acquired characteristics than Darwin ever did.
 In 1862, Haeckel married his cousin, Anna Sethe, who died in 1864, at which time he married Agnes Huschke, daughter of anatomist Emil Huschke. They had three children. In 1861, upon his return from his research expedition, Haeckel had been given the post of Privatdozent at the University of Jena. In 1862 he was named professor extraordinary in comparative anatomy and was made director of the Zoological Institute. And in 1865 a chair in zoology was established for him, which he held until 1909. During that more than 40 year period Haeckel continued his herculean labors on behalf of his science, going on four major scientific expeditions (Canary Islands, 1866-1867; Red Sea, 1873; Ceylon, 1881-1882; Java, 1900-1901) and further elaborating on his evolutionary schemes.
In 1901 he was the recipient of the Turin Bressa Prize for his outstanding work in biology. His most characteristic ideas and tendencies are evident in his early work of 1886, General Morphology - all his subsequent efforts were reworkings of this book.
He retired in 1909 to live in Jena where he died in 1919.
 This is for Robin who is a environmentalist.
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