Model citizen

A legendary marching band director has been inspired by a passion for model soldiers: He is a Model citizen fanatic.

Toy soldiers have an ancient history. Toy soldiers seem to have been around for as long as there have been toys. Ancient Chinese and Egyptian rulers had collections that have been unearthed by archaeologists, the Greeks and Romans had tiny bronze soldiers, Kings of medieval Europe had tiny armies of wood and pottery, and monarchs of the 19th century had glittering collections sculpted of gold and silver.

The World's Cups - New York Times

"Greeks drink frappés all day and all night when it's hot outside," said Stefanos Lintzeris, an owner of the cafe, which stocks special shakers and a kind of ... The World's Cups

Cafe Kolonaki, in Astoria, is one of New York's most authentic Greek cafes and a destination for lovers of the frappé, Greece's addictive national drink.

"Greeks drink frappés all day and all night when it's hot outside," said Stefanos Lintzeris, an owner of the cafe, which stocks special shakers and a kind of Nescafé instant coffee that is made just for the frappé.

Made from cold water, instant coffee and sugar, a frappé is distinguished by the thick mocha-colored foam at the top of the drink, produced by violent shaking. There is no milk in it, but a creamy foam is the mark of a well-made frappé. (The word is French, pronounced frap-PAY, even though the drink was invented in Greece in the 1950's.)

Rome: Total War - Alexander > Games Review

The Alexander focus seems too narrow, in my opinion, as it really only tells the final chapter of the conflict between the Greeks and Persians. ... Rome: Total War -- Alexander Review

The game starts after Philip's death and just as Alexander is poised to move against the Thebans. Once he manages to secure things in Greece, he'll be free to move against the Persians in the east. To win the campaign game, you'll have to capture thirty territories. Though you'll have to hold a few specific territories, capturing thirty territories is basically the same as capturing the whole map so you really won't have to worry too much about getting the right territories.

You will however have to worry about achieving your goals within the 100-turn time limit. (Since Alexander's conquests lasted only 13 years, the game dispenses with the year-by-year system and just progresses turn-by-turn.)

Ασύρματο Δίκτυο στην Πλατεία Συντάγματος

Ασύρματο Δίκτυο στην Πλατεία Συντάγματος tech in.gr Δωρεάν σύνδεση στο Internet για όλους μέσω WiFi. Internet για όλους στο Σύνταγμα

Ο Υπουργός Οικονομίας και Οικονομικών Γ.Αλογοσκούφης εγκαινίασε σήμερα 19 Ιουνίου 2006 στην πλατεία Συντάγματος την πιλοτική δωρεάν ασύρματη πρόσβαση στο γρήγορο Internet, που θα έχουν από σήμερα στο χώρο της πλατείας οι πολίτες της Αθήνας αλλά και οι επισκέπτες της.

Το ασύρματο δίκτυο δημιουργήθηκε για να εξοικειώσει τους πολίτες έως τις αρχές του 2008 με το γρήγορο Internet και να αναδείξει τις πολλαπλές δυνατότητες που προσφέρει στην καθημερινή ζωή και την εργασία τους.

Υλοποίηση σε συνεργασία με το E.M. Πολυτεχνείο

Το έργο υλοποιείται από το Υπουργείο Οικονομίας και Οικονομικών και η πρωτοβουλία εντάσσεται στην Ψηφιακή Στρατηγική της Κυβέρνησης και συγκεκριμένα στο Σχέδιο για την Ανάπτυξη της Ευρυζωνικότητας έως το 2008. Χρηματοδοτήθηκε από την Ειδική Γραμματεία για την Κοινωνία της Πληροφορίας του Υπουργείου Οικονομίας και Οικονομικών μέσω του Προγράμματος «Κοινωνία της Πληροφορίας» και υλοποιήθηκε από το Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο.

Ο κεντρικός εξοπλισμός που έχει εγκατασταθεί, καθιστά το Σύνταγμα μια από τις λίγες πλατείες της Ευρώπης στις οποίες παρέχεται δωρεάν ασύρματη πρόσβαση στο Internet από δημόσιο φορέα, με σκοπό την εξοικείωση των πολιτών.

Περισσότερες τεχνικές πληροφορίες καθώς και πληροφορίες σύνδεσης θα βρείτε στη διεύθυνση www.athenswifi.gr.

Δωρεάν Πρόσβαση στο Internet

Η πρόσβαση στο ασύρματο δίκτυο της πλατείας Συντάγματος (athenswifi) είναι ελεύθερη σε όλους τους πολίτες, αρκεί να διαθέτουν έναν φορητό υπολογιστή (laptop) ή έναν υπολογιστή χειρός (PDA), που να υποστηρίζουν τεχνολογίες "WiFi". Ο κάθε πολίτης μπορεί πλέον να συνδεθεί στο Internet μέσω του φορητού υπολογιστή του, ενώ κάθεται σε ένα παγκάκι ή σε ένα καφέ της πλατείας. Η πρόσβαση είναι ελεύθερη, αρκεί να πληκτρολογήσει τον αριθμό που θα εμφανιστεί στην οθόνη του, μόλις προσπαθήσει για πρώτη φορά να προσπελάσει μια ηλεκτρονική σελίδα.

Η ταχύτητα διασύνδεσης στο athenswifi είναι ιδιαίτερα γρήγορη (πρωτόκολλα 802.11b/g), ενώ η συνολική χωρητικότητα της γραμμής με το Internet είναι 4Mbps. Το ασύρματο δίκτυο καλύπτει την ευρύτερη περιοχή της πλατείας Συντάγματος με έμφαση στα σημεία όπου ο δημότης ή ο επισκέπτης μπορεί να καθίσει και να χρησιμοποιήσει τον φορητό του υπολογιστή. Για την καλύτερη κάλυψη της πλατείας έχουν εγκατασταθεί αρκετά σημεία ασύρματης πρόσβασης (Access Points) τα οποία επικοινωνούν ασύρματα με τον κεντρικό εξοπλισμό στο Υπουργείο Οικονομίας και Οικονομικών.

H Ειδική Γραμματεία για την Κοινωνία της Πληροφορίας, υλοποιεί ανάλογες δράσεις για την εξοικείωση με το γρήγορο Internet σε 85 ακόμη σημεία της Ελλάδας.
Περισσότερα:
www.athenswifi.gr
www.ntua.gr
www.awmn.net
www.eexi.gr

athenswifi.gr

At Athens, Greece free wi-fi Internet is available at the Syntagma Square.

Read about it at > athenswifi.gr

A Wheelchair Trek for Reunification

Choi Chang-hyun (41) is disabled by a severe form of cerebral infantile paralysis.

He is on a challenge to move an average of 80km per day for 9 months across 30 European countries. On May 10, he set off from Athens, Greece and went through Romania and Bulgaria to reach Budapest, Hungary and showed up at Hero Square on June 15 in hot temperatures around 30 degrees Celsius.

Read the whole story here > A Wheelchair Trek for Reunification as it is a real story about someone who deserves our admiration. Maybe, we can learn a bit out of his story. Don't you think so?

Iphigenie en Tauride Ends Up in Old Folks' Home at Paris Opera

The story of the 1778 opera is a sideshow of the Trojan War.

To obtain favorable winds for the Greek fleet sailing to Troy, Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenie. The goddess Artemis snatches her away and brings her to Tauris, today's Crimea. There she becomes Artemis's priestess, with the special task of sacrificing illegal aliens to the goddess.

When Oreste, her brother, arrives with his buddy Pylade, both are condemned to death. Just in time, Iphigenie recognizes him. After an intervention by the goddess, it is Thoas, the bloodthirsty king of the peninsula, who loses his life, and the three Greeks sail home.

From Bloomberg.com: Culture > "Iphigenie en Tauride'' is at the Palais Garnier through July 10. For more information and tickets, go to http://www.operadeparis.fr/ or call (33) (1) 7229-3535.

Thrill kills: turning crime into mass-market pornography

Almost as old as the Bible is the work of the Ancient Greeks: in Oedipus Rex, Sophocles explores the repercussions of one of the most abhorrent crimes, patricide.

In Macbeth, Shakespeare tackled the killing of a king. Crime is the new pornography: people can't get enough of it. Thrill kills: turning crime into mass-market pornography And where would bookshops be without crime?

They're not my preferred reading, but I have fewer problems with detective fiction (which has a longer history than even Sherlock Holmes could fathom) than true crime, the rehashing of real cases.

Frist exhibit unmasks Ancient Egypt

With its massive pyramids, miraculously preserved mummies and mysterious hieroglyphs, ancient Egypt holds a special place in the popular imagination, a distant land where crocodiles prowled the banks of the Nile, people routinely practiced the art of embalming the dead, and pharaohs were immortalized with monumental structures that rival anything from our own era.

This abiding appeal dates back even to the ancient Greeks, says Susan Edwards, executive director of the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, and today it still captures the public's attention.

Frist exhibit unmasks Ancient Egypt > Ancient Egyptian history is astonishing in its depth, with more than 30 successive royal dynasties. To help organize the sequence of events, scholars have divided the country's history into a dozen different periods, beginning with the Predynastic Period circa 5300 B.C.. The Frist exhibit picks up in the year 1550 B.C., with the beginning of the New Kingdom, and runs through the Late Period, just prior to the rule of Alexander the Great.

The history of the bra

Minoan women on the Greek isle of Crete wore bralike garments around 2500 B.C. that partly supported their breasts but lifted their bare bust out of their clothing.

Ancient Greek women wore a band of cloth to bind down the breasts for exercise in city-states that supported women's sports.

Well, get the real facts at The history of the bra!

"Happy Hour" Was Not What Aristotle Had In Mind

The Greek philosopher Aristotle would have agreed with Webster's definition of happiness as "well being and contentment."

Aristotle chose an absolutely beautiful Greek word for this state: eudaimonia, which literally means "having a good spirit or soul." As opposed to pleasure, having a good soul has an ethical dimension to it, but "Happy Hour" Was Not What Aristotle Had In Mind

The ancient Greeks loved their wine and Aristotle enjoyed a "happy hour" with his friends and students every day. His most famous student, Alexander the Great, and his Macedonian warriors were far too fond of drink. But from those bliss-filled Elysian Fields Aristotle reminds us that it is easy to gratify our senses, but it is difficult to develop the virtues necessary for true happiness.

The Bard's choice of fruit coming back

Mespilus germanica or medlar?

Native to south central Europe, medlars have been cultivated for thousands of years. They were enjoyed by the ancient Greeks and Romans. The Greek botanist Theophrastrus wrote about their uniquequalities more than 2,000 years ago.

Read this article The Bard's choice of fruit coming back and learn more!

Movies > Yay! Da Vinci set free

Court gives all clear to ‘Da Vinci’

A court in Athens yesterday threw out complaints from Greek Orthodox groups against “The Da Vinci Code” film and said that the movie, which is expected to break box office records in Greece, could be shown at some 200 movie theaters.

The judge disagreed with religious hardliners’ argument that the film was blasphemous, noting that neither the Catholic or Orthodox Churches had asked for the movie to be banned.

Members of some of the groups which had brought the action said they would protest in front of movie theaters.

The film is based on the best-selling Dan Brown novel of the same name, which explores the idea that Jesus Christ has living descendants. The Church of Greece has voiced its objection to the book, saying that it was “untrue” and “insulting” but has stopped short of saying the film should be banned.

However, Greek censors have given the film a “17” rating, meaning that children under that age will not be allowed to see the film as it was deemed to be too confusing for them.

Music > Run away train

24-HOUR TRAINS > Electric railway to run through the night while Eurovision is in Athens

The Athens-Piraeus electric railway (ISAP) will be running 24 hours a day for the next two days to provide service for passengers traveling to and from events connected with the Eurovision song contest at the Olympic complex, officials said yesterday. Services will be reduced between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. when trains will run every 15 minutes.

Strawberries

Large, red, juicy strawberries!Take a break!

Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens

The countdown has begun for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, this year hosted by the City of Athens .

The semifinal is next Thursday, May 18, at the OAKA Olympic Sports Complex's indoor basketball stadium. So far the weather hasn’t been favorable and rallies have regularly closed off downtown Athens. But the banners have gone up with the Eurovision logo and the sponsors’ names along Vassilissis Sofias and Kifissias avenues, recalling past glories when the Olympic Games were held in Athens back in the summer of 2004, and creating a sense of anticipation.

Foreign journalists are in town — 1,600 are expected, and 400 Greek journalists have already been accredited. A vast press center is ready for them. Observers from the US have come to see how the contest works, presumably because they have something similar in mind.

As last year’s winner of Eurovision — with Elena Paparizou singing “My Number One” by Christos Dantis and Natalia Germanou — Greece is organizing this year’s contest. Anna Vissi will perform Nikos Karvelas’s song “Everything,” which is a firm favorite to win. ITV showed Vissi live from the Acropolis, talking about the return of the Parthenon marbles.

She also told Ben Shepard on Good Morning TV that she thought Greece would do well in the final. Shepard’s show is watched by six million viewers a day, so if that isn’t everything, it certainly is a lot. A seasoned performer with a powerful stage presence, Vissi believes Greece will win again: “I’m looking forward to the big night of May 20 more than ever before,” she said.

Work is still in progress on the stage with its high-tech lighting and sound systems. Designed by Ilias Ledakis, the stage is being constructed by the German company Procon with the British company Stage One. In yellow T-shirts, accreditation on lanyards around their necks, cheerful, polyglot young volunteers escort the foreign artists and journalists around the venue. Nightly parties will build up the atmosphere.

The first, organized by Athens Mayor Theodoros Behrakis and ERT president Christos Panagopoulos, is Monday at 9 a.m. in the forecourt of the Zappeion Mansion, with special guest star Sakis Rouvas. Tuesday the party moves to Technopolis, Gazi, with Vissi and “Everything,” and on May 18, after the semifinal, EBU and ERT are partying at Euroclub, where the winners can rejoice and the losers can forget their woes.

We wish to all contesting countries Good Luck!