Johann Strauss, Jr.

Austrian composer
b. Oct 25, 1825 Vienna
d. June 3, 1899 Vienna

In Vienna, Johann Strausss, Sr., and his sons wrote much of the greatest dance music composed during the 19th century. The elder Strauss, the son of a poor tavern-keeper, apprenticed his son to a bookbinder, but the lure of the music was great. With a few violin lessons and a smattering of music theory, he worked his way up from a performer and composer of dance music to the directorship of the Imperial Court Balls in Vienna.

Johann, Jr., wrote 500 pieces of dance music and more than a dozen operas and operettas. He was greatly admired by the "serious" composers of his time. He might almost have been called "the Polka King," because he wrote about 150 of these lively dances.

His operatic masterpiece Die Fledermaus ("The Bat") of 1874 has spouses and lovers, masters and servants, nobility and workers, jailers and prisoners - all dancing the polka until dawn. The polka originated in Poland and arrived in Austria via Czechoslovakia. By the younger Strauss's time, it was danced in Vienna in several different versions, including the polka-mazurka, polka-quadrille, French polka and the fast polka. Most of the Strauss polkas are closest to this last style, and many are orchestrated with clever, novel effects.

John Adams, president

John Adams second president of the United States

Term: 1797-1801, Federalist

Born 1735, Died 1826

VP - Thomas Jefferson

father to John Quincy Adams 6th president of United States 1825-1829

Nobel Peace Prize 2007

Albert Gore shared the prize with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

IPCC is a scientific body tasked to evaluate the risk of climate change caused by human activity. The panel was established in 1988 by the World Meterological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), two organizations of the United Nations.

Related info:

1992 - adoption of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - major step in tackling global warming

Yet greenhouse gas emission (GHG) levels continued to rise.

KYOTO PROTOCOL - an international agreement linked to the existing treaty, but standing on its own. Adopted at the third Conference of the Parties to the UNFCC (COP3) in Kyoto, Japan, Dec. 11, 1997.

Major distinction - The convention encouraged developed countried to stabilize GHG emissions. The Protocol commits them to do so.

Detailed rules for implementation were adopted at COP7 in Marrakesh in 2001 and are called the "Marrakesh Accords."

Nepal

World History
Nepal - capital= KATMANDU (KATHMANDU)

modern state formed last part 18th century
until 2006 - only nation with Hinduism as official religion; now a secular country

Dec 2007 declared a Federal Democratic Republic
June 2008 King Gyanendra handed over crown & scepter (last in line of monarchs)
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Seven Elements of Art

1. Line the type or quality of movement between 2 points
2. Shape
3. Space a line that is enlarged and connected (generally refers to a 2 dimensional object)
4. Color
5. Texture the quality or character of the surface (giving it 2 dimensional qualities even if the surface is only 2 dimensional)
6. Value
7. Form

(#1, #3, #5 asked in competition 2007-2008)

Ohio Government Leaders Feb 2008

Governor - TED STRICKLAND
Lt. Governor - LEE FISHER
Auditor of State - MARY TAYLOR
Attorney General - NANCY H. ROGERS
Secretary of State - JENNIFER BRUNNER
Treasurer of State - RICHARD CORDRAY

State Representative - TODD BOOK democrat 89th district
State Senator - TOM NIEHAUS republican 14th district (Majority floor leader)

Representative to Congress - JEAN SCHMIDT republican 2nd congressional district

Senator to Congress SHERROD BROWN democrat
Senator to Congress GEORGE VOINOVICH republican

Chief of Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court THOMAS J. MOYER (since 1987)

Nobel

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