Coffee

Coffee Biography

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a bitter, acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Africa. Green (unroasted) coffee is one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world.[1] Coffee can have a stimulating effect on humans due to its caffeine content. It is one of the most-consumed beverages in the world.[2]

Coffee has played a crucial role in many societies. The energizing effect of the coffee bean plant is thought to have been discovered in the northeast region of Ethiopia, and the cultivation of coffee first expanded in the Arab world.[3] The earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking appears in the middle of the 15th century, in the Sufi shrines of Yemen in southern Arabia.[3] From the Muslim world, coffee spread to India,[4] Italy, then to the rest of Europe, to Indonesia, and to the Americas.[5] In East Africa and Yemen, it was used in religious ceremonies. As a result, the Ethiopian Church banned its secular consumption, a ban in effect until the reign of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia.[6] It was banned in Ottoman Turkey during the 17th century for political reasons,[7] and was associated with rebellious political activities in Europe.

Coffee berries, which contain the coffee seeds or "beans", are produced by several species of small evergreen bush of the genus Coffea. The two most commonly grown are the highly regarded Coffea arabica, and the "robusta" form of the hardier Coffea canephora. The latter is resistant to the devastating coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix). Once ripe, coffee berries are picked, processed, and dried. The seeds are then roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor. They are then ground and brewed to create coffee. Coffee can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways.

An important export commodity, coffee was the top agricultural export for twelve countries in 2004,[8] and it was the world's seventh-largest legal agricultural export by value in 2005.[9] Some controversy is associated with coffee cultivation and its impact on the environment. Many studies have examined the relationship between coffee consumption and certain health conditions; whether the overall effects of coffee are ultimately positive or negative has been widely disputed.[10] The method of brewing coffee has been found to be important to its health effects.[11] 

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Coffee 
Coffee: The Greatest Addiction Ever

Coffee And Coffee Shops - Belief In Dialogue (3/6)

 

Wasim Akram

Wasim Akram Biography 

Full name Wasim Akram
Born June 3, 1966 Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Role Bowler
Batting style Left-handed
Bowling style Left-arm fast
International information
Test debut (cap 102) 25 January 1985: v New Zealand
Last Test 9 January 2002: v Bangladesh
ODI debut (cap 53) 23 November 1984: v New Zealand
Last ODI 4 March 2003: v Zimbabwe
Domestic team information
Years Team
2003 Hampshire
2000/01 Lahore Blues
1992/93 – 2000/01 Pakistan International Airlines
1988 – 1998 Lancashire
1997/98 Lahore City
1985/86 Lahore City Whites
1984/85 – 1985/86 Pakistan Automobiles Corporation

Wasim Akram (Urdu: وسیم اکرم)(born June 3, 1966 in Lahore, Punjab) is a former Pakistani cricketer. He was a left-arm fast bowler and left-handed batsman, who represented the Pakistani cricket team in Tests and One-Day Internationals. He is widely regarded as one of the finest fast bowlers ever and holds world records for the most wickets taken in both ODIs (502) and List A cricket (881). Domestic career
Wasim signed for Lancashire in 1988 and went on to become one of their most successful overseas players. From 1988 to 1998, he spearheaded their attack in their NatWest Trophy, Benson & Hedges Cup and Sunday League winning sides. He was a favourite of the local fans who used to sing a song called "Wasim for England" at Lancashire's matches.

International career

Wasim made his Test debut for Pakistani cricket team against New Zealand in early 1985 and in only his second Test he made his presence felt with a ten-wicket haul. Like a few other Pakistani cricketers of his time, he was identified at club level and bypassed first-class domestic competition, entering international cricket directly. A few weeks prior to his selection into the Pakistani team, he was an unknown club cricketer who had failed to even make it to his college team. He was spotted by Javed Miandad, and as a result of his insisting was it that Wasim was given an oppurtunity to play for Pakistan. Later that season he paired with Imran, who became his mentor, at the World Championship of Cricket in Australia.

Wasim's rise in international cricket was rapid during the initial years. When Pakistan toured the West Indies in 1988, he looked to be the quickest bowler between the two sides. However, a serious groin injury impeded his career in the late 1980s. Following two surgeries, he re-emerged in 1990 as a bowler who focused more on swing and control than speed.

One-Day success

Wasim was instrumental in Pakistan's famous World Cup victory in 1992 in Australia. In the final against England his late flurry of an innings, 33 off 19 balls, pushed Pakistan to a respectable 249 for 6. Wasim then took the all-important wicket of Ian Botham early on, and when brought back into the attack later on, with the ball reverse swinging, he produced a devastating spell which led to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis being clean-bowled in successive deliveries. His excellent performances earned him the Man of the Match award for the final.

He also captained Pakistan with some success. The high points of his captaincy were the 1996-97 victory in the World Series in Australia, two Test match wins in India in 1998-99 and in 1999, when Pakistan reached the World Cup final for the second time. The low point was the 1996 World Cup in Pakistan and India, when he had to pull out of the crucial quarter final match against India. After Pakistan's defeat, there were angry protests outside his homes, and a government inquiry was launched into the failure.

In 1999, he led Pakistan to the brink of victory in the World Cup before they rolled over and gave the final to Australia. This was the start of the match-fixing controversies, as people believed Wasim had set up the match for Australia. He was pardoned by Justice Qayyum.

He was Pakistan's top bowler in the 2003 World Cup taking 19 wickets in 7 matches. However, Pakistan failed to reach the "Super Six" phase of the tournament, and Wasim was one of the eight players to be sacked by the Pakistan Cricket Board as a result.

Wasim was diagnosed with diabetes at the peak of his career, but despite the initial psychological blow, he managed to regain his form and went on to produce fine cricketing displays. Since then he has actively sought to be involved in various awareness-raising campaigns for diabetes.

Playing style

“ Over my 15 or 16 years of playing international cricket in Tests and one-day internationals, Wasim Akram is definitely the most outstanding bowler I've ever faced. ”
— Former West Indies batsman Brian Lara.
An immensely talented player first discovered by Javed Miandad, Wasim played for his college(Govt. Islamia College Civil Lines, Lahore) as an opening bowler and batsman. As a bowler, Wasim possessed genuine pace, accurate control of line and length and seam position, and could swing the ball both in and out. With a very deceptive ball-concealing action, he could bowl equally well from both sides of the wicket. His mastery of reverse swing with the old ball meant he was at his most dangerous towards the end of an innings, and earned him the nickname Sultan of Swing.

As well as often being able to find the edge of the bat, Wasim would also focus his attack on the stumps and had a particularly lethal yorker. Of his 414 Test wickets, 193 were taken caught, 119 were taken LBW and 102 were bowled. In partnership with Waqar Younis, he intimidated international batsmen in the 1990s. Together Wasim and Waqar, known as "the two Ws" of the Pakistani team, were one of the most successful bowling partnerships ever.

Wasim was also skilled with the bat and was regarded as a bowling all-rounder. He was especially effective against spinners. However, he liked to slog and was criticised for his lack of big scores and giving away his wicket too cheaply for a player of his talent. He did silence his critics in October 1996 when he scored 257, not out, of the team's total of 553 against Zimbabwe at Sheikhupura. He also made good scores in difficult times for the Pakistan team such as his 123 against Australia and his 45 not-out to take Pakistan to victory in a low-scoring match. Pakistan, needing six runs in two balls two win the Nehru Cup saw Wasim come out to bat. The first ball he faced was hit out of the ground and secured the cup. Ahmed Bilal was his coach who gave him tricks on reverse swing.

Records

In his Test career, Wasim took 414 wickets in 104 matches, a Pakistani record, at an average of 23.62, and scored 2,898 runs, at an average of 22.64.
In One-Day Internationals, Wasim took a world record 502 wickets in 356 appearances, at an average of 23.52, and scored 3,717 runs, at an average of 16.52.
Wasim was the first bowler in international cricket to take more than 400 wickets in both forms of the game, and only Muttiah Muralitharan has since achieved this.
Wasim also held the record for the most wickets in Cricket World Cups — a total of 55 in 38 matches. Australia's Glenn McGrath broke the record during the 2007 World Cup, ending with a final tally of 71 from 39 matches. On passing Wasim's record, McGrath said, "Wasim Akram, to me, is one of the greatest bowlers of all time. Left-armer, swung it both ways with the new ball and he was so dangerous with the old ball. To go past him is something I will always remember. Probably the other side of the coin is that if you play long enough, you're going to break records here and there."
Uniquely, Wasim took four hat-tricks in international cricket, two each in Tests and ODIs. He is one of only three bowlers to have taken two Test hat-tricks (the others being Hugh Trumble and Jimmy Matthews), and also one of only three bowlers to have taken two ODI hat-tricks (the others being fellow Pakistani Saqlain Mushtaq and Chaminda Vaas of Sri Lanka). Wasim's Test hat-tricks are unique, since they were taken in consecutive Test matches in the same series, against Sri Lanka in 1999. Wasim is also one of only two bowlers to have taken both a Test and ODI hat-trick (the other being fellow Pakistani Mohammad Sami).
Playing in a Test against the West Indies at Lahore in 1990-91, he became one of only six players to have taken four wickets in an over during a Test match. In Wasim's case, the feat was not part of a hat-trick, the third ball of the series being a dropped catch, which allowed a single.
Wasim has also achieved the highest score by a number eight batsman in Test cricket — 257 not out from 363 balls against Zimbabwe at Sheikhupura. The innings contained 12 sixes which is also a world record for Test cricket.

He also has the joint-highest number of Man of the Match awards in Test cricket, along with South African Jacques Kallis, with 17.

Controversies

In 1992, after he had been successful against English batsmen, accusations of ball tampering began to appear in the English press, though no video evidence was ever found. Wasim and Waqar had been able to obtain prodigious amounts of movement from old balls. This phenomenon, termed reverse swing was relatively unknown in England at the time.

A far larger controversy was created when he was alleged to be involved in match fixing. An enquiry commission was set up by Pakistan Cricket Board headed by a Pakistan high court judge Malik Mohammed Qayyum. The judge wrote in his report that:

This commission feels that all is not well here and that Wasim Akram is not above board. He has not co-operated with this Commission. It is only by giving Wasim Akram the benefit of the doubt after Ata-ur-Rehman changed his testimony in suspicious circumstances that he has not been found guilty of match-fixing. He cannot be said to be above suspicion.

Retirement

Wasim retired in 2003, after a brief spell with Hampshire in England. Since then, Wasim has taken up commentary and can currently be seen as a sportscaster for the ESPN Star network, and is also running shows on ARY Digital.

He is married to Huma Mufti, daughter of Mr. Humayaun Mufti. Huma and Wasim have two sons from their marriage of thirteen years.

Wasim Akram

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Wasim Akram- The King Of Swing !!

Wasim Akram : The Greatest Bowler Of All Time. Pakistan

Cell Phones

Cell Phones Biography

April 3, 2003 marked the 30th anniversary of the first public telephone call placed on a portable cellular phone. Martin Cooper ( now chairman, CEO, and co-founder of ArrayComm Inc) placed that call on April 3, 1973, while general manager of Motorola's Communications Systems Division. It was the incarnation of his vision for personal wireless communications, distinct from cellular car phones. That first call, placed to Cooper's rival at AT&T's Bell Labs from the streets of New York City, caused a fundamental technology and communications market shift toward the person and away from the place.

"People want to talk to other people - not a house, or an office, or a car. Given a choice, people will demand the freedom to communicate wherever they are, unfettered by the infamous copper wire. It is that freedom we sought to vividly demonstrate in 1973," said Martin Cooper.

Martin Cooperadded, "As I walked down the street while talking on the phone, sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call. Remember that in 1973, there weren't cordless telephones, let alone cellular phones. I made numerous calls, including one where I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter - probably one of the more dangerous things I have ever done in my life."

Following the April 3, 1973, public demonstration, using a "brick"-like 30-ounce phone, Cooper started the 10-year process of bringing the portable cell phone to market. Motorola introduced the 16-ounce "DynaTAC" phone into commercial service in 1983, with each phone costing the consumer $3,500. It took seven additional years before there were a million subscribers in the United States. Today, there are more cellular subscribers than wireline phone subscribers in the world, with mobile phones weighing as little as 3 ounces.

Martin Cooper Today

Martin Cooper's role in conceiving and developing the first portable cellular phone directly impacted his choice to found and lead ArrayComm, a wireless technology and systems company founded in 1992. ArrayComm's core adaptive antenna technology increases the capacity and coverage of any cellular system, while significantly lowering costs and making speech more reliable. This technology addresses what Cooper calls "the unfulfilled promise" of cellular, which should be, but still isn't as reliable or affordable as wired telephony.

ArrayComm has also used its adaptive antenna technology to make the Internet "personal" by creating the i-BURST Personal Broadband System, which delivers high-speed, mobile Internet access that consumers can afford.

"It's very exciting to be part of a movement toward making broadband available to people with the same freedom to be anywhere that they have for voice communications today," said Martin Cooper. "People rely heavily on the Internet for their work, entertainment and communication, but they need to be unleashed. We will look back at 2003 as the beginning of the era when the Internet became truly untethered."

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Cell Phone Reunion

Cell Phone Design

Sports Cars

Sports Cars Biography


The Houghton Mifflin dictionary defines a sports car as: "An automobile equipped for racing, especially an aerodynamically shaped one-passenger or two-passenger vehicle having a low center of gravity and steering and suspension designed for precise control at high speeds." This dictionary definition does not seem to capture the general perception of what the public sees as a sports car.

The Houghton Mifflin definition of the "two seat rule" seems out-of-date. Many sports cars today offer small back seats (sometimes referred to as 2+2 seating) and there is a current movement underway to increase the seating room in models long considered sports cars by most automotive experts.

Insurance companies use their own formula in classifying automobiles and often the presence of two doors automatically makes any car a "sports car" in their eyes. This perspective, of course, is as overly simplistic as the standard dictionary approach to defining a sports car. One can certainly think of any number of two door vehicles that fall far short of being an actual sports car. Economy cars and even larger two-door vehicles that are not built with power and performance in mind should not qualify as true sports cars.

Some car buffs will refer to high-performance muscle cars and other larger vehicles as sports cars. Others, however, draw a distinction between these vehicles and "true" sports cars. These individuals will claim that a car can be a "sporting car" or simply "sporty" but still fall short of being a true sports car. Thus, "regular" cars may be outfitted with a "sports package" and/or accessories to make the car sportier, but may not fit a strict definition of a sports car.

Not all automotive enthusiasts, however, embrace this restrictive view of sports cars. In many circles, a sports car is any car offering greater performance or power than more standard offerings. This school of thought will consider muscle cars and other larger vehicles designed with performance in mind as sports cars.

Others will maintain that the distinction between a sports car and any other type of car lies in how the car's suspension and handling are addressed. Technical debates rage over whether various suspension packages qualify as belonging to true "sports cars."

Some will argue that a sports car can be defined by its intentions. If the car is designed for performance more so than for utility, they say, it is a sports car. This intent-based definition, however, provides little guidance in determining whether a car is a sports car or not. Particularly in the modern era, the notion of designing a car of any sort without significant consideration of its feasibility and utility seems unlikely. Any commercially viable vehicle, regardless of its performance, must retain significant utility.

Road and Track, a leading automotive publication, summarizes the sports card definition debate with a simple observation: "Ask five people the exact definition of a sports car, and you'll likely get five different answers."

There is no clear-cut definition of what really is a sports car. The restrictive definitions of the past seem ill suited to categorize today's' diverse automotive offerings and common usage of the term runs contrary to most long-held definitions.

There is, however, a common thought that seems to run through almost all of the outlooks on the meaning of "sports car." If a car is designed with high performance or race-like capabilities in mind, it can probably be safely termed a sports car. Some purists may balk at such a liberal perspective, but alternative definitions fall far short of accurately distinguishing sports cars form regular production models.

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Pakistan Sports Cars

Sports Cars!

Ali Zafar

Ali Zafar Biography


Ali Zafar (Punjabi, Urdu: علی ظفر, born May 18, 1982 in Lahore, Pakistan) is a Pakistani musician, composer, song writer, singer, actor, painter and model,[1] popular for his music and now movies. His popular numbers include his hits like "Channo", "Rangeen", "Chal Dil Merey", "Dekha", "Masty", "Jhoom", "Sajania", "Madhubala","voh dekhney mein", "Dastan-e-ishq" and "Yar Dhadhi Ishq". He started his singing career with the song "Jugnuon Se Bhar Le Aanchal" in the film Shararat, directed by Pakistani actress and director Samina Peerzada but made a big mark with his first single "Channo" from his first album "Huqa Pani" that sold more than seven million copies worldwide. The album turned out to be one of the biggest hits ever in Pakistan with "Channo" topping the charts all the way for a long time. Zafar made his acting debut in the 2010 Indian film Tere Bin Laden by director Abhishek Sharma.[2]which became the biggest sleepers hit of the year and a cult classic propelling Zafar to a new dimension of stardom in Bollywood as an actor. His second movie "Mere Brother Ki Dulhan" again turned out to be a block buster taking him into a league of his own, followed by yet another hit "London,Paris,New York" marking Zafar as the first in Bollywood after Kishore Kumar to have become a successful and versatile actor,singer,composer,lyricist and music arranger all in one.

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Komal Nahta With Ali Zafar

Ali Zafar Crying For Peace Between India And Pakistan

Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin Biography

Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era.[2] He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I. Chaplin used mime, slapstick and other visual comedy routines, and continued well into the era of the talkies, though his films decreased in frequency from the end of the 1920s. His most famous role was that of The Tramp, which he first played in the Keystone comedy Kid Auto Races at Venice in 1914.[3] From the April 1914 one-reeler Twenty Minutes of Love onwards he was writing and directing most of his films, by 1916 he was also producing them, and from 1918 he was even composing the music for them. With Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, he co-founded United Artists in 1919.[4]

Chaplin was one of the most creative and influential personalities of the silent-film era. He was influenced by his predecessor, the French silent film comedian Max Linder, to whom he dedicated one of his films.[5] His working life in entertainment spanned over 75 years, from the Victorian stage and the music hall in the United Kingdom as a child performer, until close to his death at the age of 88. His high-profile public and private life encompassed both adulation and controversy. Chaplin was identified with Left-wing politics during the McCarthy era and he was ultimately forced to resettle in Europe from 1952.

In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Chaplin the 10th greatest male screen legend of all time.[6] In 2008, Martin Sieff, in a review of the book Chaplin: A Life, wrote: "Chaplin was not just 'big', he was gigantic. In 1915, he burst onto a war-torn world bringing it the gift of comedy, laughter and relief while it was tearing itself apart through World War I. Over the next 25 years, through the Great Depression and the rise of Adolf Hitler, he stayed on the job. ... It is doubtful any individual has ever given more entertainment, pleasure and relief to so many human beings when they needed it the most".[7] George Bernard Shaw called Chaplin "the only genius to come out of the movie industry".[8]

Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin

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Charlie Chaplin - The Lion's Cage

Spring

Spring Biography

Spring is one of the four temperate seasons, the transition period between winter and summer. Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and broadly to ideas of rebirth, renewal and regrowth. The specific definition of the exact timing of "spring" varies according to local climate, cultures and customs. At the spring equinox, days are close to 12 hours long with day length increasing as the season progresses.

Meteorologists generally define four seasons in many climatic areas: spring, summer, autumn (or fall) and winter. These are demarcated by the values of their average temperatures on a monthly basis, with each season lasting three months. The three warmest months are by definition summer, the three coldest months are winter, and the intervening gaps are spring and autumn. Spring, when defined in this manner, can start on different dates in different regions. In terms of complete months, in most North Temperate Zone locations, spring months are March, April and May, although differences exist from country to country.[1] (Summer is June, July, August; autumn is September, October, November; winter is December, January, February). The vast majority of South Temperate Zone locations will have opposing seasons with spring in September, October and November.

In the USA and some other regions in the Northern Hemisphere, the astronomical vernal equinox (currently around 21 March) is often taken to mark the first day of spring, and the summer solstice is sometimes taken as the first day of summer (usually 21 June in the Northern Hemisphere). In another US tradition, 2 February, Candlemas, can be regarded as the start of spring if it is mild (see Groundhog Day). In South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, spring begins on 1 September, and has no relation to the vernal equinox.[2] In Ireland spring traditionally starts on 1 February, St Brigid's Day,[3] although Irish meteorologists consider the whole of February to be part of winter.[4][5]
In South America, the Tupi-Guarani calendar, from the former inhabitants of what is presently Brazil, Northern Argentina and Paraguay, counted 365 days, plus a fourth part of a day, needing no extra day every four years. The beginning of the solar year was marked by the rising of the M25 Constellation in the horizon, which occurs between June 5 and June 11 in this part of the world. For these native people, the four seasons were clearly identified by the solstices and equinoxes[citation needed]. The trajectory of the Sun throughout the year was divided into "The New Age" (Ara Pyau) and "The Old Age" (Ara Ymã). Ara Pyau was spring and summer, and Ara Ymã was autumn and winter. This calendar, which had no graphed or written form, marked activities such as hunting, fishing, planting, harvesting and religious rituals.[6][7][8]

In East Asian Solar term, spring begins on 4 February and ends on 5 May. Similarly, according to the Celtic tradition, which is based solely on daylight and the strength of the noon sun, spring begins in early February (near Imbolc or Candlemas) and continues until early May (Beltane).

Swedish meteorologists define the beginning of spring as the first occasion on which the average daytime temperature exceeds zero degrees Celsius for seven consecutive days, thus the date varies with latitude and elevation.[9]

The phenological definition of spring relates to indicators, the blossoming of a range of plant species, and the activities of animals, or the special smell of soil that has reached the temperature for micro flora to flourish. It therefore varies according to the climate and according to the specific weather of a particular year.

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Vivaldi - Spring

Spring Song - Songs For Children