Archive for November, 2007

Miracle and Other Christmas Stories | Christmas

Friday, November 30th, 2007

In Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, author Connie Willis provides a variety of feelings and experiences. These stories are not as varied in emotional tone as her other collections, because they are in keeping with the spirit and theme of Christmas:

  • Miracle
  • Inn
  • In Coppelius’s Toyshop
  • The Pony
  • Adaptation
  • Cat’s Paw
  • Newsletter
  • Epiphany
  • A Final Word (from Connie Willis)
  • Twelve Terrific Things to Read… (Christmas stories)
  • And Twelve to Watch (Christmas movies)

Links

  • Christmas Superb collection of 9 Christmas music products on CD complete with wonderful text, lyrics, and rich images of great art and illustration.
  • Christmas-Cookies.com - hundreds of Christmas cookie recipes Christmas-Cookies.com: hundreds of traditional and modern Christmas cookie recipes, recommended Christmas cookie cookbooks, and Christmas cookie links.
  • CHRISTMAS-CAROLS.NET - Rejoice in the Christmas Spirit! A collection of lyrics to many of the best loved Christmas Carols in the world. Spread a little joy by singing this Xmas!
  • The History of Christmas How much do you really know about the festive holiday of Christmas? Learn about the true history of Christmas, the evolution of Santa Claus and more at
  • Christmas Around the World All around the world, people celebrate Christmas. And all around the world, people have taken the celebration of the birth of Jesus and made a Christmas
  • CHRISTMAS IN MEXICO - FELIZ NAVIDAD - LOS REYES MAGOS, LAS POSADAS Index to Christmas in Mexico section - in Mexico Connect - Mexico's monthly ezine / magazine devoted to informing about and promoting Mexico, her people,
  • Christmas traditions : the origins of Xmas and facts Every year more than 400 million people celebrate Christmas traditions around the world - Learn about our favorite christmas traditions and symbols.
  • Christmas Bird Count Last season's CBC is in the record books and preparations are well under way for the upcoming 108th Christmas Bird Count, the field season for which begins
  • Christmas - MSN Encarta Christmas, annual Christian holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. Most members of the Roman Catholic Church and followers of Protestantism
  • This Christmas trailer-no-1 This Christmas trailer-no-1. Web Page URL. http://movies.aol.com//movie/this-christmas/31192/video/trailer-no-1/1974697

Pantriagonal magic cube | Magic Kingdom

Friday, November 30th, 2007

A pantriagonal magic cube is a magic cube where all 4m2 pantriagonals sum correctly. There are 4 one-segment, 12(m-1) two-segment, and 4(m-2)(m-1) three-segment pantriagonals. This class of magic cubes may contain some simple magic squares and/or pandiagonal magic squares, but not enough to satisfy any other classifications.

The constant for magic cubes is S = m(m3 + 1)/2.

A proper pantriagonal magic cube has 7m2 lines summing correctly. It contains no magic squares.

Order 4 is the smallest pantriagonal magic cube possible.
A pantriagonal magic cube is the 3-dimensional equivalent of the pandiagonal magic square. Only, instead of the ability to move a line from one edge to the opposite edge of the square with it remaining magic, you can move a plane from one edge to the other.


See also

  • Magic cube classes
  • triagonal


References

Heinz, H.D. and Hendricks, J. R., Magic Square Lexicon: Illustrated. Self-published, 2000, 0-9687985-0-0.

Pickover, Clifford A., The Zen of Magic Squares, Circles and Stars, Princeton Univ. Press, 2002, 0-691-07041-5 page 178.

Hendricks, John R., The Pan-4-agonal Magic Tesseract, The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 75, No. 4, April 1968, p. 384.

Hendricks, John R., The Pan-3-agonal Magic Cube, Journal of Recreational Mathematics, 5:1, 1972, pp51-52.

Hendricks, John R., The Pan-3-agonal Magic Cube of Order-5, JRM, 5:3, 1972, pp 205-206.

Hendricks, John R., Pan-n-agonals in Hypercubes, JRM, 7:2, 1974, pp 95-96.

Hendricks, John R., The Pan-3-agonal Magic Cube of Order-4, JRM, 13:4, 1980-81, pp 274-281.

Hendricks, John R., Creating Pan-3-agonal Magic Cubes of Odd Order, JRM, 19:4, 1987, pp 280-285.

J.R.Hendricks, Inlaid Magic Squares and Cubes 2nd Edition, 2000, 0-9684700-3-3..

Pickover, Clifford A., The Zen of Magic Squares, Circles and Stars, Princeton Univ. Press, 2002, 0-691-07041-5 Pages 97,121,175,268.


External links

  • http://home.wanadoo.nl/aaledewinkel/Encyclopedia/ Aale de Winkel: Magic Encyclopedia
  • http://members.shaw.ca/hdhcubes/cube_perfect.htm Harvey Heinz: Perfect Magic Hypercubes

Links

The Edge of Christmas | Christmas

Friday, November 30th, 2007

The Edge Of Christmas was a Christmas compilation album released in 1995.


Track listing

  1. “Thank God It’s Christmas”
  2. “Please Come Home For Christmas”
  3. “2000 Miles”
  4. “December Will Be Magic Again”
  5. “Peace On Earth-Little Drummer Boy”
  6. “Winter Wonderland”
  7. “Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer”
  8. “Run Run Rudolph”
  9. “Christmas Is Coming”
  10. “Fairytale Of New York”
  11. “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight)”
  12. “Christmas Wrapping”

Links

Christmas in Kabul | Christmas

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Rick Mercer’s Christmas in Kabul is a CBC Christmas special about comedian Rick Mercer going to Afghanistan to bring Christmas cheer to the Canadian troops stationed outside Kabul. Mercer’s performances could be compared to those of Bob Hope for the USO.

Music stars Damhnait Doyle, Kevin Fox and Tom Cochrane accompanied Mercer to Camp Julien, where many of the troops live in large tents.

It originally aired December 21 2003, on CBC.


External links

Links

Pensim2 | External

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Pensim2 is a dynamic microsimulation model to simulate the income of pensioners, owned by the British Department for Work and Pensions.

Pensim2 is the second version of Pensim which was developed in the 1990s. The time horizon of the model is 50 years, by which time today’s school leavers will retire. Pensim2 uses a lot of external alignment figures. Pensim2 uses data from different data sources, e.g. BHPS, LLMDB and FRS


External links

  • DWP homepage

Links

Green Chri$tma$ | Christmas

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Green Chri$tma$ is a piece of audio theater written and performed by Stan Freberg and Daws Butler, released by Capitol Records in 1958 (catalog number F 4097). Mr. Scrooge (Freberg), the head of an unnamed advertising agency, has gathered a group of clients to discuss tying their products into Christmas. One attendee, Bob Cratchit (Butler), wants to resist tying his spice company into Christmas, preferring to send Christmas cards with a simple message of “Peace on Earth.” Scrooge extols the virtues of making money off of Christmas, and Cratchit counters by reminding Scrooge “whose birthday we’re celebrating.”

The piece is a scathing indictment of the commercialization of Christmas, with references of Christmas-themed advertising by Coca-Cola and Chesterfield Cigarettes, among others. The names of the characters are taken from A Christmas Carol In Prose by Charles Dickens, as is one of the products “advertised” (”Tyn-E-Tim Chestnuts”). Green Chri$tma$ also contains a parody of the Christmas carol The Twelve Days Of Christmas and an original song by Freberg, Christmas Comes But Once A Year.

Of especially noteworthy importance is the impact of this song’s message in the heart of corporate America, as reflected in the fact that it received no commercial AM radio airplay until 1983; only getting a little FM airplay before that (such as on the Doctor Demento Show) and only slightly more AM airtime after 1983. Beginning in 1972, Capitol reissued the single as catalog number 3503, dividing the piece into two parts; it remained in the Christmas singles section of record stores for years thereafter.

Links

Play Around the Christmas Tree | Christmas

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Play Around the Christmas Tree is an album by Play.


Track listing

  1. “Sleigh Ride” – 3:24
  2. “Winter Wonderland” – 2:03
  3. “O Holy Night” – 3:38
  4. “Let It Snow” – 1:48
  5. “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” – 1:54
  6. “Silver Bells” –2:10
  7. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” – 2:07
  8. “The Christmas Song” – 3:13
  9. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” – 3:55
  10. “Silent Night” – 3:04


Personnel

  • Anaïs Lameche
  • Janet Leon
  • Rosie Munter
  • Anna Sundstrand

Links

Lake Mburo National Park | park

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Lake Mburo National Park is a national park located in western Uganda (4 hour drive from Kampala, the capital of Uganda). The park has a variety of animals such as zebras, impala, buffaloes, and numerous bird species. At 260 km², the park is the smallest of Uganda’s savanna national parks. The park has camp grounds and permanent tent facilities for visitors.

Links

Andrealphus | appears

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Andrealphus appears as the 54th demon in Johann Weyer’s tome on demonology Pseudomonarchia Daemonum and is described as a great Marquis with the appearance of a Peacock who raises great noises and teaches cunning in astronomy, and when in human form also teaches geometry in a perfect manner. He is also described as ruling over thirty legions and as having the ability to turn any man into a bird.

Andrealphus also appears as the 65th demon in the Goetia where he is described with similar traits, but also including the ability to make men subtle in all things pertaining to Mensuration, among other things.

Other spelling: Androalphus.

See also The Lesser Key of Solomon, Ars Goetia.


In Popular Culture

In the role-playing game In Nomine, Andrealphus is the Demon Prince of Lust.

Links

Mobo | Vol.

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Mobo can refer to:

  • Shorthand for the motherboard in computers and other electronic equipment
  • Mobo, Masbate, a municipality in the Philippines
  • MOBO, an acronym for Music of Black Origin (Awards)
  • Albums by Kazumi Watanabe
    • Mobo, Vol. 1
    • Mobo, Vol. 2
    • Mobo Club
    • Mobo Splash

Links

The Temptations Christmas Card | Christmas

Friday, November 30th, 2007

The Temptations Christmas Card is a 1970 Christmas album by The Temptations for the Gordy (Motown) label. The group’s first holiday release, Christmas Card features each Temptation leading on various popular Christmas standards and original Christmas songs.


Track listing

  1. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
  2. “My Christmas Tree”
  3. “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”
  4. “Silent Night”
  5. “Someday at Christmas”
  6. “White Christmas”
  7. “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”
  8. “Silver Bells”
  9. “The Christmas Song”
  10. “Little Drummer Boy”


Personnel

  • Dennis Edwards: vocals
  • Eddie Kendricks: vocals
  • Paul Williams: vocals
  • Melvin Franklin: vocals
  • Otis Williams: vocals

Links

Wasted (single) | single in

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Wasted (1999) is a single by the industrial and synthpop band, And One.


Track listing

  1. “Wasted (radio edit)” – 3:22
  2. “Forever J” – 3:41
  3. “Wasted (Naghavi mix)” – 4:20
  4. “Maschinenhimmel” – 3:33
  5. “Lawrence of Arabia” – 2:01

All songs written by Steve Naghavi.


Personnel

  • Steve Naghavi - Voice & Machines
  • Joke Jay - Drums & Voices
  • Rick Schah - Keyboard
  • Annelie Bertilsson - Voices

Links

Crimbo | Christmas

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Crimbo is a slang term for Christmas, originating in urban slang before becoming more widely used.

The OED cites the first printed usage to 1928 (see [1]). They credit John Lennon’s 1963 usage in a Beatles’ Fan Club Christmas single as the first recorded use of the variant form Crimble (see [2]).

The word also appeared in the title of a 2004 UK hit single, Proper Crimbo, performed by Leigh Francis with guest celebrities, in the guise of various Bo Selecta! characters.

Crimbo is also the name of the MMORPG Kingdom of Loathing’s version of Christmas.

Links

Knott’s | theme

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Knott’s may refer to:

  • Knott’s Berry Farm, a theme park in Buena Park, California, owned by Cedar Fair
  • Knott’s Camp Snoopy, the former name of Camp Snoopy, a theme park in the Mall of America, also owned by Cedar Fair.

Links

Andrealphus | also appears on the

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Andrealphus appears as the 54th demon in Johann Weyer’s tome on demonology Pseudomonarchia Daemonum and is described as a great Marquis with the appearance of a Peacock who raises great noises and teaches cunning in astronomy, and when in human form also teaches geometry in a perfect manner. He is also described as ruling over thirty legions and as having the ability to turn any man into a bird.

Andrealphus also appears as the 65th demon in the Goetia where he is described with similar traits, but also including the ability to make men subtle in all things pertaining to Mensuration, among other things.

Other spelling: Androalphus.

See also The Lesser Key of Solomon, Ars Goetia.


In Popular Culture

In the role-playing game In Nomine, Andrealphus is the Demon Prince of Lust.

Links

I Pray on Christmas | Christmas

Friday, November 30th, 2007

“I Pray on Christmas” is a Christmas carol with music and lyrics by Harry Connick Jr. First released in 1993 on his multi platinum album When My Heart Finds Christmas. Connick has also released the song on his Christmas Special VHS in 1994, and again on his DVD Harry for the Holidays (2003) as a bonus track featuring Connick and Kim Burrell.

Sample of the lyrics

I pray on Christmas
Oh, the sick will soon be strong
I pray on Christmas
The Lord will hear my song
I pray on Christmas
That God will lead the way
And I pray I really pray on Christmas
He’ll get me through another day

Also recorded by

  • Lynda Randle with Michael Tait, on the album Christmas (2005).
  • Blind Boys of Alabama with Solomon Burke, on album Go Tell It on the Mountain (2003).
  • The Oak Ridge Boys, on the album An Inconvenient Christmas” (2002).
  • Kirk Talley, album Talley-ho-ho-ho! (1999).


External link

  • Audio sample, Harry Connick Jr

Links

1999 Christmas Single | is a Christmas

Friday, November 30th, 2007

1999 Christmas Single is the second Christmas single by the American punk rock/punk pop band MxPx, released in 1999 (see 1999 in music). This single was sent out to all members of the MxPx Fanclub at the time, and being a member was the only way to get one. They have continued the tradition of making a Christmas single every year and sending it out to their fan club members.


Track listing

  1. “Christmas Only Comes Once A Year” (MxPx) – 3:42


Personnel

  • Mike Herrera - Bass, Vocals
  • Tom Wisniewski - Guitar
  • Yuri Ruley - Drums

Links

Abby (singer) | theme

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Abby is a female Japanese popular music artist. Her only single as of yet is 2001’s “DOORS,” which was featured as the theme song to at least one television show and one event listed below. Not much is known about Abby; her official website (which no longer exists) simply stated that she is a “Japanese person who likes to draw pictures”. Information such as full name, age, birthplace and the like are not listed publicly; instead, she has invited her fans to decide what her profile should be, saying that “Abby lives in the hearts of everyone”.


Discography


Singles

  • “DOORS” (4/25/2001)
Tracklisting:

  1. DOORS (Opening theme to TBS’ “Katsura Geinou Otose!” TV show. Was also the theme song of the “Opposition of the Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons - World Campaign” which ran from August through September 2001 in an area that was formerly Yugoslavia.)
  2. DOORS (English version)
  3. Yumemiru Youni


External links

  • Abby Fanpage “Open the Door”

Links

Rare Cuts | Rare

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Rare Cuts is a Danger Danger compilation album, released in 2003.


Track listing

  1. Lovin’ A Girl Like You (Could Be Bad For My Health)
  2. Bang Bang
  3. Feels Like Love
  4. Little Girl’s Hot Tonite
  5. Don’t Walk Away
  6. One Step From Paradise
  7. Hold On Maria
  8. Rock America
  9. Don’t Blame It On Love
  10. Live It Up
  11. Temptation


Personell

  • Ted Poley: Lead Vocals on all songs
  • Al Pitrelli: Lead Guitar on 2-4, 6-9, and 11, Rhythm Guitar on 3-4, 6-9, and 11, Keyboards on 11, Backing Vocals on 7-9 and 11
  • Andy Timmons: Lead Guitar on 1, Rhythm Guitar on 1, Backing Vocals on 1
  • Kasey Smith: Keyboards on 7-9
  • Bruno Ravel: Bass on all songs, Lead Guitar on 5, Rhythm Guitar on 2 and 5, Keyboards on 11, Backing vocals on all songs
  • Steve West: Drums on 1-10, Backing Vocals on 1
  • Joe Franco: Drums on 11
  • George Cintron: Backing Vocals on 7-9

Links