Major League Baseball

From Wikipedia

Major League Baseball
Current season or competition: 2009 Major League Baseball season
Sport	Baseball
Founded	1876
Commissioner	Bud Selig [1]
No. of teams	30 [2]
Country(ies)	United States Canada
Most recent champion(s)	Philadelphia Phillies
Most championships	New York Yankees (26) [3]
TV partner(s)	FOX, ESPN, TBS, and MLB Network
Official website	MLB.com

Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in American professional baseball. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between them since 1903 (the National League having been in existence since 1876). In 2000, the two leagues were officially disbanded as separate legal entities with all rights and functions consolidated in the commissioner's office.^[4] MLB effectively operates as a single league and as such it constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues of North America. It is currently composed of 30 teams—29 in the United States and one in Canada.

Each season consists of 162 games (or 163 in the event of a tie breaker) which generally begins on the first Sunday in April and ends on the first Sunday in October, with the playoffs played in October and sometimes in early November. The same rules and regulations are played between the two leagues with one exception: the American League operates under the Designated Hitter Rule, while the National League does not. Utilization of the DH Rule in interleague play, the All-Star and World Series games is determined by the home team's league rules.

MLB is controlled by the Major League Baseball Constitution that has undergone several incarnations since 1876 with the most recent revisions being made in 2005. Under the direction of Commissioner of Baseball (currently Bud Selig), Major League Baseball hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts. As is the case for most of the sports leagues in the United States and Canada, the "closed shop" aspect of MLB effectively prevents the yearly promotion and relegation of teams into and out of the Major League by virtue of their performance. Major League Baseball maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of minor league baseball. This is due in large part to a 1922 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Federal Baseball Club v. National League, which held that baseball is not interstate commerce and therefore not subject to federal antitrust law. This ruling has been weakened only slightly in subsequent years.^[5][6]

The production/multimedia wing of MLB is New York-based MLB Advanced Media, which oversees MLB.com and all 30 of the individual teams' websites. Its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the League itself, but it is indeed under the same ownership group and revenue-sharing plan. MLB Productions is a similarly-structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media.

George Soros

From Wikipedia

George Soros
George Soros speaking in Malaysia
Born	August 12, 1930 (1930-08-12) (age 78) Budapest, Hungary
Occupation	speculator, investor, philosopher, philanthropist, political activist
Net worth	▲ $9.0 billion (Forbes)[1]
Spouse(s)	Twice divorced (Annaliese Witschak and Susan Weber Soros)
Children	Robert, Andrea, Jonathan, Alexander, Gregory
Website www.georgesoros.com

George Soros (pronounced /ˈsɔroʊs/ or /ˈsɔrəs/,^[2] Hungarian IPA: [ˈʃoroʃ]) (born August 12, 1930, in Budapest, Hungary, as György Schwartz) is a Hungarian-born Jewish American financial speculator, stock investor, philanthropist, and political activist.^[3]

Soros is estimated currently^[update] to be worth around $9 billion in net worth; he is ranked by Forbes as the 101st-richest person in the world.^[1]

Soros is chairman of Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Institute and is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also one of three initial funders of Center for American Progress, and is represented on the board.^[4] His funding and organization of Georgia's Rose Revolution was considered by Russian and Western observers to have been crucial to its success, although Soros said his role has been greatly exaggerated. In the United States, he is known for having donated large sums of money in a failed effort to defeat President George W. Bush's bid for re-election in 2004.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker wrote in 2003 in the foreword of Soros' book The Alchemy of Finance:

George Soros has made his mark as an enormously successful speculator, wise enough to largely withdraw when still way ahead of the game. The bulk of his enormous winnings is now devoted to encouraging transitional and emerging nations to become 'open societies,' open not only in the sense of freedom of commerce but—more important—tolerant of new ideas and different modes of thinking and behavior.

Taiperi Times

Taipei Times

From Wikipedia

Taipei Times
Traditional Chinese:	臺北時報
Simplified Chinese:	台北时报
[show]Transliterations Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin: Táiběi Shíbào

Taipei Times (臺北時報)

Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner	The Liberty Times Group
Publisher	The Liberty Times Group
Founded	1999
Headquarters	Taipei, Republic of China (Taiwan)
Circulation	over 285,000
Website: http://www.taipeitimes.com

The Taipei Times is one of the three major English-language newspapers in the Republic of China (Taiwan), the other two being the Taiwan News and The China Post. Established in 1999, the Taipei Times is published by the Liberty Times Group, which publishes the Chinese language newspaper the Liberty Times.

In contrast to The China Post, it is widely regarded as taking an editorial line that leans toward the Pan-Green Coalition.

Along with such newspapers as The Guardian, it is a participant of Project Syndicate, established by George Soros. The Taipei Times sources articles from writers at The Guardian almost every day, including travel writers.

In March 2005, the Taipei Times web site incorporated a "Wikipedia feature" for its online articles. By following a link marked "wiki links", the reader can view a new version of the article with links to the Wikipedia pages about certain subjects mentioned in the news article.

Uncyclopedia

From Wikipedia

Uncyclopedia

The Main Page of Uncyclopedia.
URL	http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com
Slogan	The content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit
Type of site	Satirical wiki
Registration	Optional
Owner	Wikia
Created by	Jonathan Huang and "Stillwaters"
Launched	January 5, 2005
Current status	Active

Uncyclopedia, "the content-free encyclopedia", is a satirically themed wiki. Founded in 2005, it is formatted as a humorous parody of Wikipedia and aims ultimately to parody all encyclopedic subjects.^[1] Originally an English-language wiki, the project currently spans over 50 languages. The English version has over 23,000 pages of content.^[2]

Various different forms of humour style are used as a vehicle for parody from sophisticated satire to the apparently random. Like Wikipedia, Uncyclopedia has guidelines regarding what is and is not acceptable content and these guidelines have become progressively more strict as the site has expanded over time. The site has gained negative attention due to its articles on places and people.

Its logo is a hollowed potato, named Sophia after the Gnostic deity, that serves as a spoof of Wikipedia's globe logo.^[3]

Laughter

From Wikipedia

Two girls laughing

Late 19th century or early 20th century depiction of different stages of laughter on advertising cards

Laughter is an audible expression (written as ha ha ha or lol etc.), or appearance of merriment or happiness, or an inward feeling of joy and pleasure (laughing on the inside). It may ensue (as a physiological reaction) from jokes, tickling, and other stimuli. Inhaling nitrous oxide can also induce laughter; other drugs, such as cannabis, can also induce episodes of strong laughter. Strong laughter can sometimes bring an onset of tears or even moderate muscular pain.

Laughter is a part of human behaviour regulated by the brain. It helps humans clarify their intentions in social interaction and provides an emotional context to conversations. Laughter is used as a signal for being part of a group — it signals acceptance and positive interactions with others. Laughter is sometimes seemingly contagious, and the laughter of one person can itself provoke laughter from others as a positive feedback.^[1] An extreme case of this is the Tanganyika laughter epidemic. This may account in part for the popularity of laugh tracks in situation comedy television shows.

The study of humor and laughter, and its psychological and physiological effects on the human body is called gelotology.

Nintendo Wii

Wii

From Wikipedia

Wi

Manufacturer	Nintendo
Type	Video game console
Generation	Seventh generation
Retail availability	November 19, 2006 (details)
Units shipped	Worldwide: 44.96 million (as of December 31, 2008)[1] (details)
Media	12 cm Wii Optical Disc 8 cm Nintendo GameCube Game Disc
CPU	IBM PowerPC-based[2] "Broadway"
Storage capacity	512 MB Internal flash memory Secure Digital card Nintendo GameCube Memory Card
Graphics	ATI "Hollywood"
Controller input	Wii Remote, Wii Balance Board, Nintendo GameCube controller, Nintendo DS[3]
Connectivity	Wi-Fi Bluetooth 2 × USB 2.0[4] LAN Adapter (via USB)
Online services	Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection WiiConnect24 Wii Shop Channel
Best-selling game	Wii Sports (pack-in, except in Japan and South Korea), 30.87 million (as of September 30, 2008)[5] Wii Play, 16.15 million (as of September 30, 2008)[5]
Backward compatibility	Nintendo GameCube
Predecessor	Nintendo GameCube

The Wii (ウィー^?) (pronounced as the English pronoun we, IPA: /wiː/) is a home video game console released by Nintendo. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of both.^[6] As of December 31, 2008 the Wii leads the generation over the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in worldwide sales.^[1]

A distinguishing feature of the console is its wireless controller, the Wii Remote, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and detect movement in three dimensions. Another distinctive feature of the console is WiiConnect24, which enables it to receive messages and updates over the Internet while in standby mode.^[7]

The Wii is Nintendo's fifth home console, the direct successor to the Nintendo GameCube, and able to play all official GameCube games. Nintendo first spoke of the console at the 2004 E3 press conference and later unveiled the system at the 2005 E3. Satoru Iwata revealed a prototype of the controller at the September 2005 Tokyo Game Show.^[8] At E3 2006, the console won the first of several awards.^[9] By December 8, 2006, it had completed its launch in four key markets.

Sumo

From Wikipedia

Sumo (相撲)

ka
A sumo match (tori-kumi) between Yokozuna Asashoryu and Komusubi Kotoshogiku in January 2008.
Focus	Grappling
Hardness	Full-contact
Country of origin	Japan
Olympic sport	No
Official website	http://www.sumo.or.jp/eng/

Sumo (相撲, sumō^?) is a competitive contact sport where a wrestler (rikishi) attempts to force another wrestler out of a circular ring (dohyo) or to touch the ground with anything other than the soles of the feet. The sport originated in Japan, the only country where it is practised professionally. The Japanese consider sumo a gendai budō (a modern Japanese martial art), though the sport has a history spanning many centuries. The sumo tradition is very ancient, and even today the sport includes many ritual elements, such as the use of salt for purification, from the days sumo was used in the Shinto religion. Life as a rikishi is highly regimented, with rules laid down by the Sumo Association. Professional sumo wrestlers are required to live in communal "sumo training stables" known in Japanese as heya where all aspects of their daily lives—from meals to their manner of dress—are dictated by strict tradition.