For your knowledge!

2007-03-14T13:46:00.000+07:00

Rock n' roll
Rock and roll (also known as rock 'n' roll), is a genre of music that evolved in the United States in the late 1940s and became popular in the early 1950s, quickly spreading to the rest of the world. It later spawned the various sub-genres of what is now called simply 'rock'.

The musical basis of rock and roll is its beat, usually accompanied by lyrics. The beat is basically a boogie woogie blues rhythm with an accentuated backbeat, the latter almost always provided by a snare drum. Classic rock and roll is played with one electric guitar or two electric guitars (one lead, one rhythm), an electric bass guitar, and a drum kit. Keyboards are a common addition to the mix. In the rock and roll style of the early 1950s, the saxophone was often the lead instrument, replaced by guitar in the mid 1950s. In the earliest form of rock and roll, during the late 1940s, the piano was the lead instrument, and indeed, among the roots of rock and roll is the boogie woogie piano of the big band era that dominated American music in the 1940s.

The massive popularity and eventual worldwide scope of rock and roll gave it an unprecedented social impact. Far beyond simply a musical style, rock and roll influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language. Many of its early stars, notably Elvis Presley, built movie and/or television careers around their music.

The term "rock and roll", which was black slang for sexual intercourse, appeared on record for the first time in 1922 on Trixie Smith's "My Baby Rocks Me With One Steady Roll".

John Lennon summed it up and stated: "If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'.

Angels and Airwaves

2007-03-13T22:12:00.000+07:00

Angels and Airwaves (AVA) is a band that was formed by former blink-182 and Box Car Racer guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge after he left blink-182. The band includes the Over My Dead Body, Hazen Street and Box Car Racer guitarist David Kennedy, ex-Distillers bassist Ryan Sinn and current Offspring drummer Atom Willard. AVA released their first single, "The Adventure", on May 18, 2006 and their debut album, We Don't Need to Whisper, on May 23, 2006.

History
Formation

According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, DeLonge trademarked the name "Angels & Airwaves (AVA)" on June 24, 2005 amidst the lingering confusion of blink-182's abruptly announced "indefinite hiatus". DeLonge quickly recruited friends and fellow musicians David Kennedy, Ryan Sinn and Atom Willard to round out the band's roster. Some of the beginnings to the songs on their album were originally going to be Blink-182 songs. Tom took blink-182's beginnings and turned them into songs on the album.

In an interview with British magazine Kerrang!, DeLonge commented about the band's beginning:

Debut

Originally, "Valkyrie Missile" was slated for release via iTunes on December 13, 2005, DeLonge's 30th birthday. However, due to discussions with their record label, Geffen, the band decided to push the release date back to a later date. Instead, the Angels and Airwaves website produced the first ever glimpse at the movie currently in production, a 1-and-a-half minute long trailer featuring portions of the delayed song.

Angels & Airwaves released both a music video and a short film for their first single, "The Adventure"; the band also released a short film for "It Hurts" via the band's official website. Both are short sci-fi films and together form the first part of a proposed ten-part series, following the cast's struggle through an unfamiliar world. On October 3, 2006, the band released the third installment in the series, "The Gift".
"Do It for Me Now" was released as the second single in the US, while in the UK "It Hurts" was released as the second single. The music video for "It Hurts" is the short-film released on April 18th and was available to select on the UK music television channel Kerrang!.

Before the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, DeLonge revealed news about the current events of the band. "The War" would be the next single to be released and the short film was released October 27th, 2006.

In 2006, the band embarked on their first full-length tour, which was headlined by Taking Back Sunday and supported by Head Automatica and The Subways. Numerous one-stop dates at the Give It a Name 2006 festival were played. The band also played on The Late Show with David Letterman on May 15, 2006.

They also performed at two shows at London's Hyde Park and at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground in Manchester supporting the Foo Fighters on their successful In Your Honor tour.

Future plans

Among the plans for a big future, AVA have announced they are planning on releasing a film involving their music tentatively titled AvA. The World War II-based movie is being created primarily through the use of CGI. This "story" is apparently based upon DeLonge's life and will give viewers insight into the hiatus of blink-182. Currently, the only known cast member is Michael Ostman. The band is writing the script for the new movie and filming for this is currently underway [1].

Furthermore, in September, on a MySpace bulletin, DeLonge revealed a new song, which is 8 and a half minutes long and contains 3 movements called "Star of Bethlehem". However, the song is only known to be one full song and not three movements as previously stated by DeLonge. The song did debut at a concert in Brisbane, Australia on October 19, 2006. The full song can now be heard on the band's MySpace, and an edited four minute version is included on the KROQ 2006 Christmas CD.

Recently, MTV asked Tom about the future of the band. DeLonge stated that the next part of his three-to-five year process would be revealed sometime this year. "It's bigger than just the band itself. It's a mixture of my businesses and the band, and when people laugh and say, 'Oh, yeah, what a big revelation that was!' ... they have no idea. I have access to developing this record far beyond what people can understand," [2]

They are now working on their second album, due late 2007.

Resting Bird is working on a new video that will introduce all of AVA's fans to the new album.

+44

2007-03-13T22:10:00.000+07:00

+44 (pronounced "Plus Forty Four", also known as (+44) or Plus-44) is a band formed by former blink-182 members Mark Hoppus (bass guitar and vocals) and Travis Barker (drums and keyboards). +44 is a punk rock super group that consists of former Transplants touring guitarist Craig Fairbaugh and the lead guitarist of The Nervous Return, Shane Gallagher. The band's debut album, When Your Heart Stops Beating, was released on November 14, 2006 in the United States.[2] According to Hoppus, the band's name, +44, refers to the international dialing code of the United Kingdom, the country where Hoppus and Barker first discussed the project.

History
Formation

After the blink-182 "indefinite hiatus" in February 2005, former members, Hoppus and Barker wanted to continue working on music; the duo began to colloborate which resulted in the writing and recording new songs together in Barker's basement. Originally, electronic drums, keyboards, samples and direct computer recordings were used in the majority of recordings. Barker later stated that the whole electronic element of the band was derived from "155", the first song he and Hoppus wrote as a band.[4]

As work continued on the demos, punk rock vocalist Carol Heller was invited, by Hoppus and Barker, to try out her vocals. Heller's performance was agreeable enough to the band and as a result the three kept working on more songs together. The band's formation changed again early in the year of 2006, with the addition of guitarist Shane Gallagher. In order to progress with their demos, Barker and Hoppus acquired a studio, a move which marked a "turning point for +44." The band began working solely in the studio they had purchased, playing live drums, guitars and vocals. The band's sound had started with an electronic element which became less evident, but still remained a key feature. As a result, Heller found she wasn't compatible with the band's direction, and with the addition of her wish to start a family, she left the band. The vocal work that Heller contributed is still present in the songs "Make You Smile", "Weatherman" and the "No, It Isn't" demo.

Work continued on the band's first record, with members, Hoppus, Barker and Shane Gallagher, until three quarters of the recording had been done. At this point a new member joined, Craig Fairbaugh, who was to play second guitar and backup vocals.

When Your Heart Stops Beating
As the projected release date started to draw in, speculation on the title of the band's debut album began to circulate. At first, it was believed that the album would be called "Little Death". This was later found out to be untrue, and the title was revealed as When Your Heart Stops Beating. A song, entitled "Lycanthrope" was released on the +44 website in early September 2006. This was only the second song that fans had heard other than "No, It Isn't" and had more of a "punk" feel to it.

Later in September 2006, KROQ radio played the title track of the forthcoming album after a message from Mark Hoppus through his MySpace blog, alerting fans to this fact. The band played their first gig on the September 7, 2006 at the Roxy Theatre in Hollywood; Hoppus stated it was the first show he had performed in two years. The audience received free shirts that say "THE FIRST SHOW SEPTEMBER 7, 2006 LOS ANGELES, CA THE ROXY THEATRE" or "BORN IN LONDON AND RAISED IN LOS ANGELES" (referring to the band being created during a conversation between Hoppus and Barker in London and the band writing/recording their record in Los Angeles). The band followed this up by their second ever gig and first ever UK gig in London at the Astoria. Both gigs were met with very encouraging reactions from fans, considering that at that time, only one completely recorded and mastered song, "When Your Heart Stops Beating" had been heard.

A music video for "When Your Heart Stops Beating" was shot in a factory in LA shortly after their first gig. Fans were invited along to feature in the video also. The video debuted in the US on TRL in late September 2006. During the shooting of the video, Travis Barker injured his arm, which was discovered weeks later after playing a whole European promo tour. Fans can hear parts of this through Mark's Podcast Morning Zoo. This left the band with no option but to postpone part of its US tour, originally scheduled for October 2006, to December of the same year.

The release date for the album was confirmed to be November 14, 2006 for North America, November 13, 2006 for Europe, and November 11, 2006 for Australia. The band will be releasing two singles to support the album release. "When Your Heart Stops Beating" will be released in the US whereas in the UK, "Lycanthrope" will be released as a 7" vinyl on November 8, 2006. On November 13, 2006, a day before the release, during the show at the 9:30 Club, the album was sold early, with a free pink "Cliffdiving" 7".

Upon ordering a t-shirt from +44, fans were randomly chosen to receive a limited edition CD that contains the demo of the song "No, It Isn't". The packaging states that there are only 500 of these discs.

A brand new electronic remix of "When Your Heart Stops Beating" was added to the band's official website, as well as their MySpace on October 23, 2006. The song "Lycanthrope" is on the soundtrack of the video game Tony Hawk's Project 8, in which Travis Barker is an unlockable character.

Regarding the lyrical content of the album, Hoppus stated that "the +44 album is by far the most lyrically personal music I have ever written. The words are everything I have inside me put on a CD. This is the most personal album any of us have ever written. You want to know who we are, what we think, or how we feel? Listen to the +44 CD."[5] The album refers to the break-up of blink-182, and "the ugly feelings that were left over afterwards,"[2] according to Hoppus. The song "No It Isn't", released on Tom Delonge's birthday, December 13, is primarily directed towards DeLonge's departure from blink-182.[6]

The band appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman on November 15, 2006, playing "When Your Heart Stops Beating", as well as Jimmy Kimmel Live on December 19, 2006.

The band then appeared on UK TV music show "The Rock Hour" describing the reasons of forming +44.

+44 did a cover of the Descendents' song, "Christmas Vacation" for KROQ's Kevin & Bean's Christmas album, and on tour in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at First Avenue. Later they did a cover of Berlin's song, The Metro, for their second European Tour.

+44's When Your Heart Stops Beating was ranked number 2 in Maxim's top 10 music for 2006.

The second UK single is "When Your Heart Stops Beating" to coincide with their current tour in Europe. It will be released on February 12, 2007. It will be released on 7" vinyl containing the title track and a electronic mix of the title track. The CD version will contain the title track and "Baby Come On". The single's music video premiered on Kerrang TV on the January 11, 2007. The video is also available to select from the Kerrang Playlist. It can be seen on Scuzz, MTV 2 and The Box as well.

The third single in the UK will be "Chapter 13". Yahoo! released the video for the song which was directed by American video director Jason B. Bergh.

The second single in the USA is supposed to be "Baby Come On" according to Mark Hoppus' blog, http://himynameismark.com/.

Due to his arm injury, Travis Barker pulled out of going on tour with +44 in Europe and Australia, but he will return to perform with +44 in the summer of 2007 with Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is..., Paul Wall, and Cobra Starship on the 2007 Honda Civic Tour (currently, Gil Sharone is filling in for him.) It is rumored that +44 will appear at a variety show in New Orleans called "The Joseph Burwell Show featuring Steve Harris" sometime in 2007.

Vodka

2007-03-13T21:13:00.000+07:00

Vodka is one of the world's most consumed distilled beverages. It is typically a colorless liquid containing ethanol purified by distillation from a fermented substance such as grain. The word is the diminutive of "water" in various Slavic languages (voda, woda, вода).

Except for various types of flavorings, vodka consists of water and alcohol (ethanol). It does not contain any calories from fat, which is probably the reason behind its popularity. It usually has an alcohol content ranging from 35% to 50% by volume. The classic Russian vodka is 40% (80 proof). This can be attributed to the Russian standards for vodka production introduced in 1894 by Alexander III from research undertaken by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev. According to the Vodka Museum in Moscow, Mendeleev found the perfect percentage to be 38, but since spirits in his time were taxed on their strength, the percentage was rounded up to 40 to simplify the tax computation. At strengths less than this vodka drunk neat (not mixed with other liquids) can taste 'watery' and above this strength the taste of vodka can have more 'burn'. Some governments set a minimum alcohol content for a spirit to be called "vodka"; for example, the European Union sets a minimum of 37.5% alcohol by volume. [1] Although vodka is generally drunk neat in its Eastern European and Scandinavian homeland, its growth in popularity elsewhere owes much to its usefulness in cocktails and other mixed drinks, such as the Bloody Mary, the Screwdriver, the Vodka Tonic, and the Vodka Martini.

Etymology
The origins of vodka (and of its name) cannot be traced definitively, but it is believed to have originated in the grain-growing region that now embraces Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, and western Russia. It also has a long tradition in Scandinavia.

The word can be found in the Primary Chronicle of Novgorod dating to 1533, where the term vodka is used in the context of herbal alcoholic tinctures. A number of pharmaceutical lists contain the terms "vodka of bread wine" (водка хлебного вина) and "vodka in half of bread wine" (водка полу хлебного вина). As alcohol had long been used as a basis for medicines, this implies that the term vodka is a noun derived from the verb vodit’, razvodit’ (водить, разводить), "to dilute with water". Bread wine was a spirit distilled from alcohol made from grain (as opposed to grape wine) and hence "vodka of bread wine" would be a water dilution of a distilled grain spirit.

While the word could be found in manuscripts and in lubok (лубок, pictures with text explaining the plot, a Russian predecessor of the comic), it began to appear in Russian dictionaries in the mid-19th century.

Interestingly, peoples in the area of vodka's probable origin have names for vodka with roots meaning "to burn": Polish: gorzałka; Ukrainian: горілка, horilka; Belarusian: гарэлка, harelka; Lithuanian: degtinė; Latvian: degvīns; Finnish: paloviina; Danish; brændevin; Swedish: brännvin; Norwegian: Brennevin (although the Swedish and Norwegian terms refer to any strong alcoholic beverage); in Russian during 17th and 18th century горящее вино (goryashchee vino, "burning wine") was widely used.

History
For many centuries beverages contained little alcohol. It is estimated that the maximum amount was about 16% as only this amount is reachable by means of natural fermentation. The still allowing for distillation – “the burning of wine” – was invented in the 8th century.

The process of distillation was kept secret for a long time. The first description of a distilling apparatus comes from the 13th century. The device was later described by a university professor in his treatise about wine. To produce beverages containing 60% alcohol with the device, the distillation process had to be repeated several times. The general knowledge about distillation was being slowly developed until 1800, when Edward Adam invented the process of rectification which removed its “bad taste”. Further changes were made in 1817 by Johannes Pistorius, a German brewer, who built the first machine which could produce a beverage containing 85% of alcohol in just one distillation. In 1830 in Ireland designed an apparatus that could work continuously and allowed for production of beverage containing almost 90% of alcohol. A similar rectification machine, but working periodically, was for the first time used in 1852 in a brewery in Saint Denis by Pierre Savalle. The present-day distillation-rectification machines, designed in the 19th and 20th centuries, are essentially modernized versions of those devices. Currently, such machines can work continuously and produce beverages containing 95.6% alcohol without any taste or smell.

The process of distillation with still was widely promoted throughout Europe by Dutch traders. In the 17th century they also played a great role in exchanging the various types of alcohols such as mead, wine, beer, and also the stronger ones such as rum, cognac, whisky and vodka, between the countries of their origin.

History of Indonesia

2007-03-13T21:11:00.000+07:00

Indonesia is a country encompassing an archipelago of 17,508 islands (6,000 inhabited) stretching along the Equator. The area is populated by peoples of various migrations, creating a diversity of cultures, ethnicities, and languages. These diverse peoples were influenced in varying degrees by trade and contact with the civilizations of the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia, before the Portuguese initiated a direct relation between Indonesia and Europe, and colonists from the Netherlands finally consolidated most of the archipelago into a single administrative unit, under the Dutch East India Company.

The outbreak of World War II saw Indonesia put in the middle of warfare between the Dutch and Imperial Japan. The defeat of the Dutch saw them driven out and replaced with Japanese occupation forces, but the weakening of these two world powers provided an opening for Indonesian Nationalists, led by Sukarno, and other independence movements to launch an armed conflict. After a brief time, during which the Dutch sought to re-colonize the country, the Indonesian Nationalists won recognition for the newly formed Republic of Indonesia. In doing so, it was among the first Third World nations to gain its independence after World War II.

Since gaining independence, the Republic of Indonesia has largely been ruled by a strong central government in Jakarta. After Indonesia's founding President Sukarno was weakened by prolonged warfare against Malaysia and its Commonwealth allies in the Konfrontasi, and by internal conflict between the Indonesian Army and the Communist Party of Indonesia, general Suharto took power in 1966. The period of his rule, known as the era of the New Order, would last 32 years and would make Indonesia a rapidly industrializing nation, though not without the problems of extensive corruption and popular discontent. After a wave of protests demanding democracy, Suharto stepped down, beginning the present period of Indonesian history, known as the Reformation era.

Prehistory
Geologically the area of modern Indonesia appeared sometime around the Pleistocene period when it was still linked with the Asian mainland. The archipelago formed during the thaw after the latest ice age. The area's first known humanlike inhabitant some 500,000 years ago was "Java Man" (first classified as Pithecanthropus erectus, then subsequently named a part of the species Homo erectus). Recent discoveries on the island of Flores were dubbed "Flores Man" (Homo floresiensis), a miniature hominoid that grew only three feet tall, although whether this is a separate species is in dispute. Nevertheless, Flores Man seems to have shared some islands with Java Man until only 10,000 years ago, when they became extinct.

Early history
Indian scholars wrote about the Dvipantara or Jawa Dwipa Hindu kingdom in Java and Sumatra around 200 BC.

The earliest archeological record from the present era is from the Ujung Kulon National Park, West Java, where an early Hindu archeological relic of a Ganesha statue from the 1st century AD was found on the summit of Mount Raksa in Panaitan Island.

There is also archeological evidence of a kingdom in Tatar Sunda / Sunda Territory (West Java) dating from the 2nd century, and according to Dr Tony Djubiantono, the head of Bandung Archeology Agency, Jiwa Temple in Batujaya, Karawang, Java was also built around this time.

Three rough plinths dating from the beginning of the fourth century are found in Kutai, East Kalimantan, near Mahakam River. The plinths bear an inscription in the Pallava script of India reading "A gift to the Brahmin priests". In addition, the "Batu Tulis" monument (a huge black boulder) near Bogor, West Java, dates from around 450. On this monument, King Purnawarna inscribed his name and made an imprint of his footprints, as well as his elephant's footprints. The accompanying inscription reads, "Here are the footprints of King Purnawarna, the heroic conqueror of the world". This inscription is in Sanskrit and is still clear after 1500 years.

Tony Hawk

2007-03-13T21:09:00.000+07:00

Anthony Frank Hawk (born May 12, 1968, in San Diego, California) is a professional American skateboarder. He is considered one of the most successful and influential persons of modern vertical skateboarding. He is credited with the invention of many skateboard tricks including the Stalefish, Madonna, and McHawk, but is most famous for being the first to land the 900 (two and a half rotations—900°—in the air before landing back on the pipe) during the televised 1999 X-Games, for which he received an enormous amount of fame. It marked the beginning of his rise to fame, solidifying his status as a household name. He retired from competitive skateboarding afterwards, but continues to skate and demo.

Business interests
In 2000, after the skateboarding industry took a downturn and vertical skateboarding's popularity waned in the rise of street skating, Hawk started Birdhouse Projects along with ex-Powell Peralta pro Per Welinder. Now known as Birdhouse Skateboards company . He also owns his own film and TV production company, 9 Films, and, along with his family, started Hawk Hunting. Hawk Hunting was later sold to Quiksilver and is now sold exclusively in Kohl's department stores across the USA. Tony's Boom Boom HuckJam tour is the most successful action sports tour featuring skateboarding, BMX, and Freestyle Motocross. The tour went to arenas across the USA in 2003, 2004, and 2005 and is touring Six Flags parks across the country in the summer of 2006 and 2007. Hawk also has many games released with his name; Tony Hawk's Series games. In 2000, he wrote an autobiography with Sean Mortimer that was entitled HAWK: Occupation: Skateboarder, which made it to number 18 on to the New York Times bestseller list. He later wrote a second book, a road journal called Between Boardslides and Burnout.

Personal life
Hawk was born to Nancy and Frank Hawk. His father supported Hawk's skateboarding and founded both the California Amateur Skateboard League and the National Skateboarding Association. The NSA held many of the competitions that Hawk competed and won in. Frank passed away in 1995. Hawk has one brother, Steve, and two sisters, Lenore and Patricia. Tony married Cindy Dunbar in 1990, and in 1992 they had his first son, Hudson Riley Hawk who goes by the name Riley due to the release of the movie Hudson Hawk at that time. Hawk and Dunbar divorced in 1995. Hawk married Erin Lee in 1996, and had two more sons, Spencer in 1999 and Keegan in 2001. They divorced in 2006 Hawk married Lhotse Merriam on January 12, 2006

International Monetary Fund

2007-03-13T21:08:00.000+07:00

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization that oversees the global financial system by observing exchange rates and balance of payments, as well as offering financial and technical assistance when requested. Its headquarters are located in Washington, D.C..

Membership qualifications
Any country may apply for membership to the IMF. The application will be considered first by the IMF's Executive Board. After its consideration, the Executive Board will submit a report to the Board of Governors of the IMF with recommendations in the form of a "Membership Resolution." These recommendations cover the amount of quota in the IMF, the form of payment of the subscription, and other customary terms and conditions of membership. After the Board of Governors has adopted the "Membership Resolution," the applicant state needs to take the legal steps required under its own law to enable it to sign the IMF's Articles of Agreement and to fulfill the obligations of IMF membership.

A member's quota in the IMF determines the amount of its subscription, its voting weight, its access to IMF financing, and its allocation of SDRs. A member state cannot unilaterally increase its quota - increases must be approved of by the Executive Board. For example, in 2001, China was prevented from increasing its quota as high as it wished, ensuring it remained at the level of the smallest G7 economy (Canada)[1]. Since then, its contribution has been allowed to be increased slightly further.

As of 2006, participating nations were discussing changes to the voting formula, to increase equity.

Criticism
The role of the two Bretton Woods institutions has been controversial to some since the late Cold War period. Critics claim that IMF policy makers deliberately supported capitalistic military dictatorships friendly to American and European corporations. Critics also claim that the IMF is generally apathetic or hostile to their views of democracy, human rights, and labor rights. The controversy has helped spark the anti-globalization movement. Others claim the IMF has little power to democratize sovereign states, although that is not its stated objective, which is to advise and promote financial stability. Arguments in favor of the IMF say that economic stability is a precursor to democracy.

Two criticisms from economists have been that financial aid is always bound to so-called "Conditionalities", including Structural Adjustment Programs. Conditionalities, it is claimed, retard social stability and hence inhibit the stated goals of the IMF, while Structural Adjustment Programs lead to an increase in poverty in recipient countries. [2]

Typically the IMF and its supporters advocate a Keynesian approach. As such, adherents of supply-side economics generally find themselves in open disagreement with the IMF. The IMF frequently advocates currency devaluation, criticized by proponents of supply-side economics as inflationary. Secondly they link higher taxes under "austerity programmes" with economic contraction.

Currency devaluation is recommended by the IMF to the governments of poor nations with struggling economies. Supply-side economists claim these Keynesian IMF policies are destructive to economic prosperity.

That said, the IMF sometimes advocates "austerity programmes," increasing taxes even when the economy is weak, in order to generate government revenue and balance budget deficits, which is the opposite of Keynesian policy. These policies were criticised by Joseph E. Stiglitz, former chief economist and Senior Vice President at the World Bank, in his book Globalization and Its Discontents[3]. He argued that by converting to a more Monetarist approach, the fund no longer had a valid purpose, as it was designed to provide funds for countries to carry out Keynesian reflations.

Complaints are also directed toward International Monetary Fund gold reserve being undervalued. At its inception in 1945, the IMF pegged gold at 35 dollars per Troy ounce of gold. In 1973 the Nixon administration lifted the fixed asset value of gold in favour of a world market price. Hence the fixed exchange rates of currencies tied to gold were switched to a floating rate, also based on market price and exchange. This largely came about because Petrodollars outside the United States were more than could be backed by the gold at Fort Knox under the fixed exchange rate system. The fixed rate system only served to limit the amount of assistance the organization could use to help debt-ridden countries. Current IMF rules prohibit members from linking their currencies to gold.

Most altermondialists, like ATTAC, believe that IMF interventions aggravate the poverty and debt of Third World and developing countries. According to the analysis by Yves Engler, the IMF is considered to be responsible for worsening or actually creating famine in Malawi (2002), Ethiopia (2003) and Niger (2005).[4] The IMF, in turn, has documented evidence to the contrary. [citation needed]

Opposition to the IMF is often fragmented. For instance, advocates of supply-side economics would generally regard the policies advocated by ATTAC to be little different in form to the ideas peddled by the IMF. In other words, they would see ATTAC tax-and-spend policies and the IMF's austerity policies as being fundamentally similar.

Argentina, which had been considered by the IMF to be a model country in its compliance to policy proposals by the Bretton Woods institutions, experienced a catastrophic economic crisis in 2001, generally believed to have been caused by IMF-induced budget restrictions — which undercut the government's ability to sustain national infrastructure even in crucial areas such as health, education, and security — and privatization of strategically vital national resources. The crisis added to widespread hatred of this institution in Argentina and other South American countries, with many blaming the IMF for the region's economic problems.[5] The current — as of early 2006 — trend towards moderate left-wing governments in the region and a growing concern with the development of a regional economic policy largely independent of big business pressures has been ascribed to this crisis.

Another example of where IMF Structural Adjustment Programmes aggravated the problem was in Kenya. Before IMF got involved in the country, the Kenya central bank oversaw all currency movement in and out of the country. IMF mandated that Kenya central bank had to allow easier currency movement. However, the adjustment resulted in very little foreign investment, but allowed Kamlesh Manusuklal Damji Pattni, with the help of corrupt government officials, to siphon out billions of Kenya shillings in what came to be known as the Goldenberg scandal, leaving the country in a state worse than that which it was in before the IMF reforms were implemented.

That the IMF is perceived to intervene only in countries that experience years of dire economic conditions has certainly hurt its reputation. The financial collapses it intervenes in are products of uneven capitalist development sometimes exacerbated by government mismanagement, but mismanagement is often cited by rich nations as the source of the financial crises. These collapses tend to lead to years of economic difficulty that can be addressed in various ways, but IMF Structural Adjustment Policies consistently serve to open up or "liberalize" economies to foreign capital rather than provide for economic recovery through statist policies such as government financed projects to achieve full employment. Thus, IMF policies further the notion that economic development in underdeveloped countries is dependent on attracting foreign investment rather than through a state-managed approach centered on full employment and progressive taxation. It is also true that politicians have used the IMF as an easy target for blame when they themselves have erred, using nationalism to gain easy political points.

Overall the IMF success record is perceived as limited. While it was created to help stabilize the global economy, since 1980 critics claim over 100 countries have experienced a banking collapse that they claim have reduced GDP by four percent or more, far more than at any time in Post-Depression history. The considerable delay in IMF response to a crisis, and the fact that it tends to only respond to rather than prevent them, has led many economists to argue for reform, they claim. In 2006, an IMF reform agenda called the Medium Term Strategy was widely endorsed by the institution's member countries. The agenda includes changes in IMF governance to enhance the role of developing countries in the institution's decision-making process and steps to deepen the effectiveness of its core mandate, which is known as economic surveillance or helping member countries adopt macroeconomic policies that will sustain global growth and reduce poverty.

Whatever the feelings people in the Western world have for the IMF, research by the Pew Research Center shows that more than 60 percent of Asians and 70 percent of Africans feel that the IMF and the World Bank have a positive effect on their country.[6] This may largely be due to the fact that the media and textbooks in developing countries' schools describe the IMF as having a positive role in their countries, despite claims that there has been an increase in poverty, increase in the debt-burden, and a reduction of economic growth that IMF opponents argue its policies have resulted in.[citation needed] In 2005, the IMF was the first multilateral financial institution to implement a sweeping debt-relief program for the world's poorest countries known as the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative. By year-end 2006, 23 countries mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and Central America had received total relief of debts owed the IMF.

The documentary Life and Debt deals with the IMF's policies' influence on Jamaica and its economy, from a critical point of view.

The IMF has long been criticized for what has been considered an incredibly unfair advantage to the world powers in concern for the IMF funds distribution especially among third world countries.

Blink182

2007-03-13T21:05:00.000+07:00

Blink-182 (sometimes typeset "blink-182") was a band formed in 1992 by Mark Hoppus (vocals and bass), Tom DeLonge (vocals and guitar) and Scott Raynor (drums) in Poway, California, a northern suburb of San Diego. Originally, the band's official name was "Blink", however, the numerical three digit suffix was appended early in their career following an objection from an Irish band with the same name. Travis Barker replaced Raynor on drums in 1998, midway through a U.S. tour. The group went on indefinite hiatus in early 2005. DeLonge went on to form Angels and Airwaves while Hoppus and Barker spawned +44. The possibility of a reunion has neither been officially confirmed nor denied but it is looking gradually less and less likely, especially with rising tensions between members.

The band is known for its catchy, simple melodies and lyrical toilet humor. Songwriters Hoppus and DeLonge cite punk rock bands such as The Descendents and Screeching Weasel[17] as their early influences, however, the band's songwriting and production was driven by a pop sensibility. Their last album featured more musical experimentation and lyrical sophistication than previous releases.

History
Early career (1992–1995)

In April 1993, Blink released its first demo tape entitled Flyswatter, recorded in drummer Scott Raynor's bedroom. A 4-track was used to record the material, resulting in poor sound quality. According to Hoppus, only around fifty copies of the demo were produced to give to their family and friends. Before the end of the year, the band released another demo, Buddha. Around 1,000 copies were produced by Filter Records, an independent record company headed by Hoppus's boss.

In early 1994, Blink signed with Cargo Records. The band recorded their debut full-length album, Cheshire Cat in three days. The album contained a number of updated versions of songs such as Strings and Carousel that had appeared on the Buddha demo as well as some originals.

Shortly after the release of Cheshire Cat, Blink was threatened with legal action by a pop band in Ireland of the same name. In order to avoid a dispute, Blink appended "182" to the end of their name. The band has cited a variety of reasons for ultimately choosing 182, with some of the more common explanations being the number of times Tony Montana utters the word "fuck" in Scarface, references to the 1985 Timothy Hutton film, Turk 182!, the band's ideal weight, the number of half the days in a year and the number of miles Hoppus had to drive to visit his girlfriend.

[edit] Dude Ranch-era (1996–1998)

Blink-182 was signed by MCA in 1996 which later became Geffen Records. After moving to Encinitas, California, the band recorded the album Dude Ranch in 1996 with producer Mark Trombino. The album was released in 1997 and was relatively commercially successful, selling 4 million copies worldwide. The single "Dammit" did well on U.S. modern rock charts, however drummer Scott Raynor later left the band. There are two common explanations for his removal - that Raynor had a serious drinking problem and was asked to go into rehab or face ejection, or alternately, that he departed in order to attend college. Raynor claims he agreed to go to rehab, but that DeLonge and Hoppus were doubtful of his sincerity and subsequently fired him over the phone. Hoppus and DeLonge had asked drummer Travis Barker of Blink-182's support band The Aquabats to fill in for Raynor for the remainder of the tour, thus he had to learn all of the songs in a matter of hours before the show. He ultimately went on to join the band permanently afterwards, leaving The Aquabats.

[edit] Mainstream success (1999–2004)

For the 1999 album Enema of the State, the band hired Jerry Finn as its producer. The album propelled the band into the mainstream, granting the hit singles "What's My Age Again", "All the Small Things" and "Adam's Song" a significant amount of airtime on radio and MTV. Enema of the State went on to sell over 5 million copies worldwide making it the band's bestselling album to that point.

In 2000, the band released The Urethra Chronicles, a DVD which featured behind-the-scenes information. The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show: The Enema Strikes Back, Blink-182's sole live album, was also released in 2000, featuring songs from their three full-length records. The album also included one new studio song, "Man Overboard," among the live renditions. The album quickly went out of print making it much sought after item. A limited edition was printed in October 2006.

The band continued its commercial success with Take Off Your Pants and Jacket in 2001, which was in the same vein as Enema of the State. However, a European tour in winter 2001 was canceled in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks. Rescheduled dates in early 2002 were also canceled due to DeLonge's problems with his back.

In 2002, Blink-182 co-headlined the Pop Disaster Tour with Green Day. The tour was documented on the DVD Riding In Vans With Boys.

After taking some time off in 2002, recording of the next record began in early 2003. The band released its next studio album on November 18, 2003. It featured the hit singles "Feeling This", "I Miss You", "Down", and "Always". According to Barker, the untitled record was supposed to represent a new Blink-182.[18] It received significant airplay on radio and TV. The Cure front man Robert Smith, often cited as a major influence on the band, appeared on "All of This". During late 2003, the band embarked on the "Dolla Bill" tour, named for the inexpensive ticket costs. A tour with No Doubt in the summer of 2004 was also very successful.

[edit] Indefinite hiatus and new bands (2005-present)

In mid-February 2005 the band cancelled a performance at Music for Relief's Concert for South Asia. Shortly thereafter (February 22, 2005), the band announced they were going on an "indefinite hiatus".

Geffen Records released a Greatest Hits compilation on November 1 2005 in the U.S., one previously unreleased track was included "Another Girl Another Planet" (a cover song originally by The Only Ones). The song was also used as the theme song to Barker's new reality TV show, Meet the Barkers. Included was the previously issued "I Miss You" B-side and Blink-182 album bonus track "Not Now". The album reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200 in the United States.[19]

Three weeks later DeLonge announced his new band, Angels and Airwaves. As his reason for why Blink-182 went on indefinite hiatus, DeLonge suggested the mounting tension between himself and Hoppus, ultimately caused by DeLonge's desire for a break with his family coupled with Hoppus's feelings of betrayal after the formation of Box Car Racer. He also announced his plans to create a film about the final days of Blink-182.[20] Angels and Airwaves released their debut album We Don't Need to Whisper on May 23rd, 2006, where it debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200.

Hoppus and Barker's new project +44 surfaced on December 13, 2005 with the song, "No It Isn't". Coincidentally, the song was released on +44's official myspace on the same day that Angels and Airwaves were slated to release their first song (and also Tom DeLonge's 30th birthday), though the release of the latter was delayed. Initially, Hoppus was hesitant to admit any deliberate correlation between the song and breakup, but has since admitted the song was about DeLonge and the breakup of the band. +44 released their first album When Your Heart Stops Beating on November 14, 2006 and debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200.

In August 2006, Hoppus gave an extensive interview with b182.com. The interview focused on Blink-182 and the hitherto-unexplained events that had led to the band's hiatus. Contrary to DeLonge's statements, Hoppus said that the band had been getting along at the time of their final album. Hoppus went on to say that DeLonge requested a half-year respite from touring to spend time with his family, despite a planned spring U.S. tour. Hoppus and Barker hesitantly conceded, leading to the cancellation of the upcoming tour. Further problems arose in discussions regarding the band's future recording endeavors. It was at this point that Hoppus felt that Blink-182 had ceased functioning as a band. Hoppus went on to state that he and Barker eventually formed +44 at the end of the European leg out of frustration for DeLonge's constant reluctances.

Origin Poway, California, USA
Genre(s) Pop Punk[1][2][3][4][5]
Punk rock[6][7][8][9] [10][11][12][13][14]
Alternative rock[15][16]
Years active 1992 – 2005
Label(s) Geffen Records
Website www.blink182.com

Emo

2007-03-13T21:04:00.001+07:00

Emo is a subgenre of hardcore punk music. Since its inception, emo has come to describe several independent variations, linked loosely but with common ancestry. As such, use of the term has been the subject of much debate.

In its original incarnation, the term emo was used to describe the music of the mid-1980s Washington, DC scene and its associated bands. In later years, the term emocore, short for "emotional hardcore", was also used to describe the DC scene and some of the regional scenes that spawned from it. The term emo was derived from the fact that, on occasion, members of a band would become spontaneously and strongly emotional during performances. The most recognizable names of the period included Rites of Spring, Embrace, One Last Wish, Beefeater, Gray Matter, Fire Party, and, slightly later, Moss Icon. The first wave of emo began to fade after the breakups of most of the involved bands in the early 1990s.

Starting in the mid-1990s, the term emo began to reflect the indie scene that followed the influences of Fugazi, which itself was an offshoot of the first wave of emo. Bands including Sunny Day Real Estate and Texas Is the Reason put forth a more indie rock style of emo, more melodic and less chaotic in nature than its predecessor. The so-called "indie emo" scene survived until the late 1990s, as many of the bands either disbanded or shifted to mainstream styles.

As the remaining indie emo bands entered the mainstream, newer bands began to emulate the more mainstream style, creating a style of music that has now earned the moniker emo within popular culture. Whereas, even in the past, the term emo was used to identify a wide variety of bands, the breadth of bands listed under today's emo is even more vast, leaving the term "emo" as more of a loose identifier than as a specific genre of music.

Punk rock

2007-03-13T21:01:00.000+07:00

Punk rock is an anti-establishment rock music genre and movement that emerged in the mid-1970s. Preceded by a variety of protopunk music of the 1960s and early 1970s, punk rock developed between 1974 and 1977 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, where groups such as the Ramones and Sex Pistols were recognized as the vanguard of a new musical movement.

Punk bands, eschewing the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock, created short, fast, hard music, with stripped-down instrumentation and often political or nihilistic lyrics. The associated punk subculture expresses youthful rebellion, distinctive clothing styles, a variety of anti-authoritarian ideologies, and a DIY (do it yourself) attitude.

Punk rock became a major phenomenon in the United Kingdom during the late 1970s; its popularity elsewhere was more limited. During the 1980s, forms of punk rock emerged in small scenes around the world, often rejecting commercial success and association with mainstream culture. By the turn of the century, punk rock's legacy had led to development of the alternative rock movement, and new punk bands popularized the genre decades after its first heyday.

kaskus the largest indonesian community ^__^

2007-03-13T20:59:00.000+07:00

Kaskus is The Largest Indonesian forum site which is widely considered as the largest Indonesian online community. It was established on November 6, 2000, by three Indonesian students (AD, RS, and BD) in the United States. As of August 31, 2006, Kaskus has more than 200,000 members. In August 2005 and September 2006, PC Magazine Indonesia voted Kaskus as The Best Indonesian communities twice (2005 & 2006).[1] Registration is required for new users to participate in the community, and every registered member has the privilege to access more than twenty sub-forums on various subjects. The community runs on the vBulletin forum software.

On May 23, 2006, the internet domain has been changed from .com to .us in response to a computer virus called Brontok that attacked the