Bosnia's mystery pyramid is to be investigated and inspected by a team of experts from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
Semir Osmanagic, an amateur archaeologist, has caused a stir with his find at Visocica hill in the centre of Bosnia, although local and European archaeologists denounce it as nonsense. Geologist Aly Abd Barakat, an Egyptian researcher sent by Cairo to assist Mr Osmanagic's team last month, has said that the 2,300ft hill did appear to be a primitive man-made pyramid of uncertain age.
Mr Barakat said huge stone blocks found on the three sides of the hill used the same type of artificial cement as ancient Egyptian pyramids June 06, 2006.
Paris Hilton has been freed from jail according to a report from TMZ. And now the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department has called a hastily scheduled news conference early Thursday morning outside the Century Regional Detention Facility to answer reporters' questions about why exactly Paris Hilton is out of jail.
Hilton was freed early Thursday morning, according to the report, after checking in late Sunday night. She was held in a special unit where she was spending 23 hours a day in a solitary cell, her lawyer said.
The Associated Press is reporting that the 26-year-old hotel heiress surrendered to authorities with little fanfare after a surprise appearance earlier that day at the MTV Movie Awards, where she worked the red carpet in a strapless designer gown.
After she checked in, sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said Hilton's demeanor was helpful. "She was focused; she was cooperative," he said. Reports now claim that she was released due to overcrowding.
The star of "The Simple Life" pleaded no contest to a reckless-driving charge in January and was sentenced to 36 months of probation. When she was later pulled over by the California Highway Patrol, Hilton was told her she was driving on a suspended license and signed a document acknowledging she was not to drive. She was then pulled over by sheriff's deputies on Feb. 27 and charged with violating probation.
Bill Gates dies in a car accident. He finds himself in purgatory, being sized up by St. Peter.
"Well, Bill, I'm really confused on this call; I'm not sure whether to send you to Heaven or Hell. After all, you enormously helped society by putting a computer in almost every home in America, yet you also created that ghastly Windows '95. I'm going to do something I've never done before in your case; I'm going to let you decide where you want to go."
Bill replied, "well, what's the difference between the two?"
St. Peter said, "I'm willing to let you visit both places briefly, if it will help your decision."
"Fine, but where should I go first?"
"I'll leave that up to you."
"Okay then," said Bill, "Let's try Hell first."
So Bill went to Hell. It was a beautiful, clean, sandy beach with clear waters and lots of bikini-clad women running around, playing in the water, laughing and frolicking about.The sun was shining; the temperature perfect. He was very pleased.
"This is great!" he told St. Peter. "If this is hell, I REALLY want to see heaven!"
"Fine," said St. Peter, and off they went.
Heaven was a place high in the clouds, with angels drifting about, playing harps and singing. It was nice, but not as enticing as Hell.
Bill thought for a quick minute, and rendered his decision.
"Hmmm. I think I'd prefer Hell," he told St. Peter.
"Fine," retorted St. Peter, "as you desire."
So Bill Gates went to Hell.
Two weeks later, St. Peter decided to check on the late billionaire to see how he was doing in Hell. When he got there, he found Bill, shackled to a wall, screaming amongst hot flames in dark caves, being burned and tortured by demons.
"How's everything going?" he asked Bill.
Bill responded, with his voice filled with anguish and disappointment, "This is awful! This is nothing like the Hell I visited two weeks ago! I can't believe this is happening! What happened to that other place, with the beautiful beaches, the scantily-clad women playing in the water?!???"
"That was the demo," replied St. Peter.
Top Ten Reasons Computers Are Male
10. They have a lot of data but are still clueless.
9. A better model is always just around the corner.
8. They look nice and shinny until you bring them home.
7. It is always necessary to have a backup.
6. They'll do whatever you say if you push the right buttons.
5. The best part of having either one is the games you can play.
4. In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on.
3. The lights are on but nobody's home.
2. Big power surges knock them out for the night.
1. Size does matter.
E-MAIL COMMANDMENTS
Thou shalt include a clear and specific subject line.
Thou shalt edit any quoted text down to the minimum thou needest.
Thou shalt read thine own message thrice before sendest it.
Thou shalt ponder how thy recipient might react to thy message.
Thou shalt check thy spelling and thy grammar.
Thou shalt not curse, flame, spam or USE all CAPS.
Thou shalt not forward any chain letter.
Thou shalt not rely on the privacy of email, especially from work.
Thou shalt not use email for any illegal or unethical purpose.
When in doubt, save thy message overnight and reread it in the light of the dawn.
And, the Golden Rule of email: That which thou findest hateful to receive, sendest thou not unto others.
1. The Millau viaduct is part of the new E11 expressway connecting Paris and Barcelona and features the highest bridge piers ever constructed. The tallest is 240 meters high and the overall height will be an impressive 336 meters, making this the highest bridge in the world.
Try to count the number of black dots on the image below...
This is an example of an anamorphic illusion created by Julian Beever. This sidewalk drawing was drawn in a special distortion in order to create an impression of 3 dimensions when seen from one particular viewpoint
For some time, the Argentinean bass player and songwriter Beto Vázquez (leader and founder of the extinct band Nepal), continued enlarging his musical horizons, always accumulating new ideas, and with the hope of finally making a group of musicians that could fulfill and understand what he really wanted to transmit. This new creative stage in Beto's careeer uses very varied compositions in what refers to styles, leaving behind the songwriting parameters that he surrendered in the last years next to his former band (Nepal).
In September of 1999, he finished to compose what would be a demo, which was listened by the record label Nems Enterprises, who immediately offered him a record deal. Vázquez would have the hard task now of finding musicians that were adjusted to the high standards that the project demanded. The company also suggested him that the album could be sang in English by voices of international fame, making it easy for the album to be released worldwide. Without a doubt, a great challenge for an Argentinean musician; difficult but not impossible...
The drums should be recorded by some well known and respected musician, and Beto agreed with the producer that he should be Jörg Michael from Stratovarius. The surprising thing was that when the drummer listened the material, he accepted inmediately saying that he had also liked most of the arrangements of the demo.
The selection of the different voices was also a hard task, since diverse candidates were shuffled, being finally chosen Fabio Lione (Rhapsody, Vision Divine, Athena), Candice Night (Blackmore's Night), Tarja Turunen (Nightwish) and Sabine Edelsbacher (Edenbridge).
Nevertheless, another problem for Beto was adapting the album project to the local live scene. As it was already mentioned before, he had to find appropriate musicians to perform his music. On drums, he needed somebody that could understand him almost perfectly, and viceversa. Luckily enough, Beto found that person before beginning the searching: Marcelo Ponce (Nepal), was the chosen one. The guitars were in charge of three excellent musicians whose styles can be appreciated in each participation, putting the fair touch to the given topic. The invited players were Pablo Soler (Humanimal), Javier Bagalá (Nepal) and Gonzalo Iglesias. Without a doubt, they offered their best performance as it was required.
The flute parts were executed by Lilah Bertolini, through the medieval flute and tin whistle. In the other hand, it was difficult to find the person that could interpret the arrangements and melodies in such sounds as violins, strings, chelos and effects, but Beto had already the perfect musician for the task: Danilo Moschen, an excellent keyboard player that he knew a while ago. When he commented him of the project, Danilo was surprised a lot but didn't doubt.
Regarding the search for the appropiate vocalist (not an easy decision to make), Beto discovered the vocal work of Max Ditamo, contacting then the vocalist and explaining him what was the project about. Max immediately accepted, and began to work following the ideas already thought by Vázquez, and starting the songwriting of melodies and lyrics, and sharing them with Vázquez until arriving together to the final result.
All the songs were created by Beto Vázquez and performed by the band. This way, in charge of the songwriting, the musical direction, the arrangements; and playing four & five strings bass, acoustic and electric, acoustic and electric guitar, Vázquez was able to expand his potential as a musician and give shape to a new project based on his personal music favorites (Pink Floyd, Rhapsody, Helloween, Skyclad, Porcupine Tree, Moonspell, Blackmore's Night, In Flames, etc).
By midd 2000, the band played live for the first time as opening act for Nightwish, in Buenos Aires, achieving the public's massive acceptance (a crowd also surprised with the interpretation of the Pink Floyd cover "High hopes"). In November, BVI played together with Labyrinth and Vision Divine in the Progressive Power Nems Festival. Again, the band received the public's support, not only for their music but for the excellent performance of the musicians on stage, plus the great cover version of Rhapsody's "Land of immortals".
In January of 2001, Max returned to his original band and Beto decided that it was time to add more vocals to the project, applying choruses and looking for complementary vocal works. After many tests, the chosen ones were David Lazar, Diego Leone and Ailin Álybel, becoming stable members in charge of lead vocals and choruses. These new members, along with Marcelo Ponce, Lilah Bertolini, Gonzalo Iglesias, Danilo Moschen and Beto Vázquez himself, gave their best for this band.
In August, 2001 was released, only for Argentina, and in a imited 1000 copies edition the MCD "Battle of Valmourt", including a version of the song "Promises under the rain", an instrumental song with the addition of backing vocals sang by Tarja Turunen, and "Battle of Valmourt" sang by Max Ditamo and the well-known Fabio Lione on backing vocals, along with a mutimedia track with further information and comments of worldwide known musicians on the Project.
By the end of that year, ´Beto Vazquez Infinity - "Beto Vazquez Infinity", the first full CD of the band, was released, and from then on, the Project started becoming well known not only in Argentina, but also throughout the rest of the world. Nowadays, the album has been released in Europe, Korea, Russia, Japan, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Argentina and in France.
Also during the year 2001, Vero Áiudi became stable member of the band on lead and backing vocals.
The composing of the new material began in January, 2002, and during the same year Cyntia Correa took part in the Project as guest singer.
In April, 2002 the tour producer José Luis Botto poposed Beto to take the band on tour and play in Spain, in a fest where bands such as Barón Rojo, Shaman, Ángeles del Infierno and Dark Moor among others would take part. Therefore, the band travelled to Spain and gave their first international show there. The audience showed great approval, and the musicians claim to have really enjoyed that experience.
In July, 2002 starts the first part of "Space Without Limits", the second full album.
In November, Pablo Soler on guitars became stable member of the band. Pablo had already worked with Beto in the song "Infinity Space", from the first CD.
In December,"Wizard" was released; this is an EP containing rareties from the first CD in different versions, such as "Until Dawn" sang by Max Ditamo (former BVI singer) with its original lyrics, and "Danjorland", track sang by the female singer Vero Áiudi, who, until now, remains with the band.
This EP includes 8 tracks together with the first videoclip based on the song "Wizard", being this also the name of same.
In December "The Keepers of Jericho - Part II" was also released. In this second part of the Tribute to Helloween, Beto Vazquez Infinity took part with a cover version of the song "A Tale That Wasn´t Right", in which Elisa Martin (Dark Moor) made her guest appearance on lead vocals.
In January 2003, Víctor Rivarola, on lead and backing vocals. In August, Ramiro Escobar arrived to the band in keyboards.
In the beginning of 2003, Beto gets back on composing and finishes writing the stuff for "Space Without Limits". The songs are delivered to the guests for the new record: Elisa Martin, Liv Kristine, Floor Jansen, Emppu Vuorinen, Arjen Lucassen, J.P.Leppaluoto, Walter Guiardino, Hugo Bistolfi and Juan Pablo Blanco who recorded their performance for the new album.
In February 2004, Paola Tieffemberg comes into the band. At the same time, the band came back on stage, being able to introduce most of the stuff from "Space Without Limits" in shows. In July of the same year, the band takes part on the Black Sabbath tribute, “Sabbath Crosses” with the song “Die Young”, released by Blak Star C.
In August 2004, Vázquez begins writing the material for the successor of the so long delayed “Space Without Limits”.
In July 2005, the band records “A tout le Monde”, by Megadeth, for the tribute “Hangar de Almas”, to be released by the label 2M producciones. Other bands in the tribute are: Celesty (Finland), Hamka with Elisa Martin (Dreamaker) in voice and Red Wine (Spain).
Besides, Beto decides to change the band’s line-up for the new record and for the live shows. The new line up includes Vero Áiudi (lead and backing vocals and live keyboards), Víctor Rivarola (lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar, bass and live keyboards) Norberto Román (drums), Gerardo Elsegood (electric and acoustic guitars) and Beto Vázquez (bass, acoustic guitar and live and studio keyboards).
In April 2006, the band was invited to take part in the first “Festival Iberoamericano”, along with Tierra Santa (Spain), and presented songs from Space Without Limits and Flying Towards The New Horizon, their next works.
Beto Vazquez Infinity is a project based on seriousness and respect towards people, musicians and music in general.
This POST will be about my hometown Zemun ( Taurunum )
Zemun (Земун) is a major suburb of Belgrade ( Serbia ) situated at the confluence of river Sava into Danube. The municipality of Zemun has a population of 152,950 (2002 census) with 145,751 in urban Zemun.
- History -
The area of Zemun has been inhabited ever since the Neolithic period. The first Celtic settlements in Taurunum happened in the 3rd century BC. Taurunum became part of the Roman province of Pannonia around year 15. After the Great Migrations the area was under the authority of various tribes and states. The Frankish chroniclers of the Crusades mentioned it as Mallevila, a toponym from the 9th century.
The first written records mention this city in the 12th century. The name Zemun is believed to be derived from Slavic word "zemlin" meaning "earth". By the end of the 12th century it passed from Byzantine rule to the Kingdom of Hungary, and remained under it until the start of the Ottoman wars in Europe. After the nearby Serbian state fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1459, Zemun became an important military outpost. It finally fell to the Ottomans on July 12, 1521. In 1541, Zemun was integrated into the Srem sanjak of the Buda pashaluk.
Zemun and the southeastern Srem was taken by the Austrian Habsburgs in 1717 and became a feudal property of the Schönborn family. Zemun was the site of a peasant revolt in 1736, as well as continued border wars with the Ottomans. The Treaty of Belgrade of 1739 finally fixed the border, the Military Frontier was organized in the region in 1746, and the town of Zemun was granted the rights of a military commune in 1749. In 1754, the population of Zemun included 1,900 Orthodox Christians, 600 Catholics, 76 Jews, and about 100 Roma. In 1777, the population of Zemun numbered 1,130 houses with 6,800 residents, half of which were ethnic Serbs, while another half of population was composed of Catholics, Jews, Armenians and Muslims. Among Catholic population, the largest ethnic group were Germans.
Zemun prospered as an important road intersection and a border city. In 1816 it was greatly expanded by mass resettlement of Germans and Serbs in the new town suburbs of Francstal and Gornja Varoš, respectively. In the 19th century, Zemun reached 7,089 residents and 1,310 houses. Zemun also became important in Serbian history as the refuge for Karađorđe in 1813 as well as many other people from the nearby Belgrade and the rest of Serbia which was still under Ottoman rule.
During the Revolution of 1848-1849, Zemun was one of the de facto capitals of Serbian Vojvodina, a Serbian autonomous region within Habsburg Empire, but in 1849, it was returned under the administration of the Military Frontier. With the abolishment of the Military Frontier in 1882, Zemun and the rest of Srem was included into Croatia-Slavonia, an autonomous Habsburg crownland. The first railway line that connected it to the west was built in 1883, and the first railway bridge over the Danube followed shortly thereafter in 1884.
During the First World War in 1914, Zemun changed hands between Serbia and Austria-Hungary, finally ending up in Serbia on November 5, 1918. The town became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Kingdom of Yugoslavia). The inter-war period was marked by political struggle between the city gentry (organized into the Serbian Radical Party, Serbian Democratic Party and the Croatian Peasant Party) and the more socialist parties supported by the ethnic Germans. The start of the unification with the city of Belgrade happened in 1934 when the municipality services of Zemun were united with those of Belgrade. Two intra-city bus lines were started that connected Zemun with the parts of Belgrade, and the general shift of attention towards this issue was supported by the growing Serbian population of Zemun.
The Zemun airbases originally built in 1927 were an important geostrategic objective in the Axis invasion of April 1941. During the war the city was controlled both by the Nazi-sponsored military government of Serbia and the nearby Nazi-puppet Croatia. After the end of the Second World War and the Partisan victory in 1945, the once independent city of Zemun officially became part of Belgrade.
During the regime of Slobodan Milošević, Zemun became a stronghold of notorious Zemun clan, one of principal organized crime cartels in Belgrade. Bosses and prominent members of this clan have been trialled and convicted for the assassination of Serbian prime minister Zoran Đinđić.
1996 - The idea of Nightwish was "born" in July 1996 at midnight when Tuomas was spending a night with his friends around a campfire. The first three songs, which were acoustic mood music, were recorded between October and December 1996. At that time, the band had three members: Tuomas, Tarja and Emppu.
1997 - The band wanted to see what the music would sound like if drums were added (Jukka joined the band). Also at this time, the acoustic guitar was replaced with an electric. After a couple of weeks of training, the band went to the studio this was in April 1997. At that time seven songs were recorded. These songs can be found on the limited edition of the album Angels Fall First.
1998 - In April 1998, they started filming the first video, The Carpenter. It was ready in early May and was first played on Jyrki. During the summer, songs for the new record were rehearsed and the band went to the studio in early August; the recordings were finished in late October. Everybody was surprised by the success of Oceanborn. It went up to fifth place on the official Finnish album chart and the single Sacrament of Wilderness was the number one on the singles chart for weeks.
1999 - In winter 1999, Nightwish played a lot of gigs all around the country for three months which included a gig on the Lista chart show program. In spring Oceanborn was first released outside of Finland. In May, the band started to play gigs again and toured the country for two and a half months, playing in almost all of the big rock festivals. At the same time the single Sleeping Sun was recorded... In August t was confirmed that Nightwish would be touring Europe for 26 gigs with the German band Rage.
2000 - In early 2000 the band entered the studio again for the recording of their third album. The new album, Wishmaster, was released in May and the Wishmaster Tour started from Kitee, the home town of the band. After the show, the band received gold discs for the album Oceanborn and the singles Sacrament of Wilderness, Walking in the Air, and Sleeping Sun... The next project of Nightwish included the making of a full-length concert DVD & VHS with a limited live album (only for Finland). The concert was performed in Tampere on the 29th of December 2000. The material was released in April 2001 in Finland and worldwide during the summer of 2001. At the end of the show, Nightwish were given platinum discs for "Wishmaster" and gold discs for the single "Deep Silent Complete".
2001 - In March 2001 Nightwish entered the studio again to record their version of Gary Moore's classic Over The Hills And Far Away, with 2 new songs and a remake of Angels Fall First's "Astral Romance". The Finnish release for this EP was in June 2001. The video for the track "Over the Hills and Far Away", which had rapidly sold platinum in Finland as a mini-CD, was shot in August 2001 in Finland. The tour in Finland the same year ended in Nivala, and the band was close to disbanding. Tuomas went hiking and gathering his thoughts in Lappland; some changes had to be done in order for Nightwish to be able to continue. According to his own words, Tuomas wanted to end the band due to prolonged disagreements within the band. Luckily, that didn't happen. But something happened, a lot in fact. Sami Vänskä, who had been with them since Oceanborn, had to leave. Marco Hietala, known from Tarot and Sinergy, promised to step in as a replacement for the next album and tour. King Foo Entertainment became their new booking agency, and long-time friend and colleague, Ewo Rytkönen, was to become their manager. To celebrate the "new beginning", the first official shop for fan-products, Nightwish-Shop, was opened on the band's homepage on November 24th 2001, a month before Christmas. The recording of the next album Century Child started in January 2002.
2003 - The beginning of 2003 saw more good results in reader's polls of various magazines, and a studio was booked in order to start recording the next album, planned to be released the next year. Happenings also at the home-front: Jukka and his girlfriend Satu had a daughter, Luna, on March 11, 2003. Nightwish received their first double-platinum award for Century Child, having sold 60,000. During 2003, the forthcoming DVD-documentary End of Innocence was being put together, and it's release was postponed a few times due to huge amount of material. In May 2003, Tarja Turunen announced that she had secretly gotten married a few months earlier, and would be moving back to Finland. The DVD "End of Innocence" was finally released on October 6th 2003, and at that point, Nightwish had already started recording the next album. Their fifth album "Once" would be the most important release in the history of Nightwish. Before the Christmas of 2003 Nightwish auctioned their "Century Child World Tour"-backdrop, and donated all the money to charity. The outcome was 1,750 EUR, and was given to Parikanniemi's Children's home in Ristiina on December 2003. The funds were handed out by Tarja Turunen, Michael "Big Tini" Leipold from Germany became the new proud owner of the backdrop.
2004 - The year 2004 was eagerly expected by both the fans and the band. Exhausting studio-sessions took their toll both physically and mentally. Nemo was the first single released off the forthcoming album, and a big-budget video was made. Nightwish started a world Tour of 150 concerts in all continents, the tour lasted until the end of 2005. This tour was be the biggest in the history of Nightwish so far. The album "Once" sold gold in Finland immediately on its release day, as did the single "Nemo". In May 2004, Nightwish started the Once World Tour. The second single, Wish I Had An Angel, was released in Autumn 2004. In August, Nightwish finally made it to the USA! The tour was very successful and they planned to come back for a bigger tour in 2005. After the tours in Europe and South America in the Autumn of 2004, and some separate gigs in December, the band had some time off in January 2005.
2005 - In February 2005, Nightwish won five awards in Emma-Gala (Finnish Grammy). In March, Nightwish performed the first time in Japan and Australia; in April and May, they had to have a break because of Tarja's other interests, but at the end of May the band started the tour again by playing with Iron Maiden in Poland and with Mötley Crüe in Norway. During the Autumn 2005, Nightwish played several shows... The final concert was played on 21 October for 11,500 people in Hartwall-Arena in Helsinki. The concert was also recorded to be released as an End of an Era live DVD. After the last concert, Tuomas, Emppu, Marco and Jukka fired Tarja Turunen, and her manager Marcelo Cabuli. The reason for this was because during the Once Tour their attitude and actions had turned out to be against almost all that Nightwish represents. As one may guess, the news of the firing was followed by an incredible sensation and hullabaloo. Once the nearly ridiculous fuss was finally starting to calm down in the end of 2005, Nightwish was able to look to the future and wait for an adequate singer to be found. By the end of 2005, "Once" has sold approx. 1,000 000 copies worldwide as well, it has sold triple platinum in Finland, platinum in Germany, and gold in Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Greece, and Austria. The "Highest Hopes" collection has sold double platinum in Finland and gold in Norway by the end of the year 2005.
2007 - 24.05.2007 - The new singerThe day we have all been waiting for is finally here. Today, Nightwish introduce their new lead singer.
Name: Anette Olzon
Birthday: 21 June 1971
Place of residence: Sweden
Hobbies: Exercising, clothes, reading books and taking long walks in the wild.
If you have some great pictures, videos or some cool story, you can submit by sending a e-mail to me. my e-mail is - otrovzemun@gmail.com i will review them and publish the best! :) tnx...
