Vulgaria is happy to select Charlemagne as our Military Leader.
We of course reserve the right to move him to the position of monarch at a later date.
We select Charlemagne as our military leader as he managed to unite large swaths of Europe together through 4 centuries of near continuous warfare. All this during a time considered by many to be the dark ages.
"Charlemagne (pronounced /ˈʃɑrlɨmeɪn/; Latin: Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus, meaning Charles the Great; possibly 742 – 28 January 814) was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans (Imperator Romanorum) from 800 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800. This temporarily made him a rival of the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople. His rule is also associated with the Carolingian Renaissance, a revival of art, religion, and culture through the medium of the Catholic Church. Through his foreign conquests and internal reforms, Charlemagne helped define both Western Europe and the Middle Ages. He is numbered as Charles I in the regnal lists of France, Germany (where he is known as Karl der Große), and the Holy Roman Empire."
"Today he is regarded not only as the founding father of both French and German monarchies, but also as the father of Europe: his empire united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Romans, and the Carolingian renaissance encouraged the formation of a common European identity.[1]"
Our proud Democratic Dictatorship is pleased to announce our new Businessman/Entrepreneur: Warren Buffett
An American investor, industrialist, and philanthropist. He is one of the most successful investors in the world. Often called the "legendary investor Warren Buffett" he is the primary shareholder, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people, he was ranked as the world's second wealthiest person in 2009 and is currently the third wealthiest person in the world as of 2010.
Buffett is called the "Oracle of Omaha"or the "Sage of Omaha" and is noted for his adherence to the value investing philosophy and for his personal frugality despite his immense wealth. Buffett is also a notable philanthropist, having pledged to give away 99 percent of his fortune to philanthropic causes, primarily via the Gates Foundation. He also serves as a member of the board of trustees at Grinnell College.
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"In the Soviet army it takes more courage to retreat than advance."
Rubekistan is proud to select the country's doctor, Louis Pasteur:
Louis Pasteur (pronounced: [pastœʁ] December 27, 1822 – September 28, 1895) was a Frenchchemist and microbiologist born in Dole. He is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of disease. His discoveries reduced mortality from puerperal fever, and he created the first vaccine for rabies and anthrax. His experiments supported the germ theory of disease. He was best known to the general public for inventing a method to stop milk and wine from causing sickness, a process that came to be called pasteurization. He is regarded as one of the three main founders of microbiology, together with Ferdinand Cohn and Robert Koch. Pasteur also made many discoveries in the field of chemistry, most notably the molecular basis for the asymmetry of certain crystals.[2] His body lies beneath the Institute Pasteur in Paris in a spectacular vault covered in depictions of his accomplishments in Byzantine mosaics.
Once again, my pick (Buffett) is stolen from under my nose. George is getting angry. People must be reading my mind - must get my tin foil hat.
In any case the semi-prosperous and semi-free nation of VUSSR is proud to select...
In the Rebel Category, the man who showed all the others to come the way to socialist paradise....
VLADIMIR ILYICH LENIN aka ULYANOV
The October Revolution
In Petrograd dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in the spontaneous July Days riots, by industrial workers and soldiers.[33] After being suppressed, these riots were blamed by the government on Lenin and the Bolsheviks.[34]Aleksandr Kerensky, Grigory Aleksinsky, and other opponents, also accused the Bolsheviks, especially Lenin — of being Imperial German agents provocateur; on 17 July, Leon Trotsky defended them:[35]
An intolerable atmosphere has been created, in which you, as well as we, are choking. They are throwing dirty accusations at Lenin and Zinoviev. Lenin has fought thirty years for the revolution. I have fought [for] twenty years against the oppression of the people. And we cannot but cherish a hatred for German militarism . . . I have been sentenced by a German court to eight months' imprisonment for my struggle against German militarism. This everybody knows. Let nobody in this hall say that we are hirelings of Germany.[36]
In the event, the Provisional Government arrested the Bolsheviks and outlawed their Party, prompting Lenin to flee to Finland. In exile again, reflecting on the July Days and its aftermath, Lenin determined that, to prevent the triumph of counter-revolutionary forces, the Provisional Government must be overthrown by an armed uprising.[37] Meanwhile, he published State and Revolution (1917) proposing government by the soviets (worker-, soldier- and peasant-elected councils) rather than by a parliamentary body.[38]
In late August 1917, while Lenin was in hiding in Finland, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army General Lavr Kornilov sent troops from the front to Petrograd in what appeared to be a military coup attempt against the Provisional Government. Kerensky panicked and turned to the Petrograd Soviet for help, allowing the revolutionaries to organize workers as Red Guards to defend Petrograd. The coup petered out before it reached Petrograd thanks to the industrial action of the Petrograd workers and the soldiers' increasing unwillingness to obey their officers.[39]
However, faith in the Provisional Government had been severely shaken. Lenin's slogan since the April Theses - "All power to the soviets!" - became more plausible the more the Provisional Government was discredited in public eyes. The Bolsheviks won a majority in the Petrograd Soviet on 31 August and in the Moscow Soviet on 5 September.[40]
In October Lenin returned from Finland. From the Smolny Institute for girls, Lenin directed the Provisional Government’s deposition (6–8 November 1917), and the storming (7–8 November) of the Winter Palace to realise the Kerensky capitulation that established Bolshevik government in Russia.
For the category of Philosopher, I choose Adam Smith
Cleopatra needs a great deal of wealth to finance the take-over of the planet. Adam Smith is known by many as the father of economics. He championed free-market economics and has had a great deal of influence on the wealthiest of nations after the publishing of the wealth of nations. Cleopatra will also need to justify the taxes necessary for global domination, and Smith is just the man:
"Every tax, however, is, to the person who pays it, a badge, not of slavery, but of liberty."
For the category of Musician, Cleopatra requires the services of Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky
On the 70th anniversary of the Russian victory over Napolean's invading Grande Armee, he debuted the famous 1812 Overture most recognized for its explosive finale:
He has written many enduring classical staples, including the ballet known the world over: The Nutcracker
The Alberta Ballet is putting on the Nutcracker on the days before Christmas... it is a real treat.
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Watching the Oilers defend is like watching fire engines frantically rushing to the wrong fire
Last edited by GirlySports; 09-14-2010 at 09:36 AM.
The glorious motherland next turns its sights to the creative arts, and looks to a pioneering genius...
In the Movie Director category SERGEI EISENSTEIN
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (Russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн Sergej Mihajlovič Ejzenštejn; January 23, 1898 – February 11, 1948) was a pioneering SovietRussianfilm director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage." He is noted in particular for his silent filmsStrike (1924), Battleship Potemkin (1925) and October (1927), as well as the historicalepicsAlexander Nevsky (1938) and Ivan the Terrible (1944, 1958). His work profoundly influenced early filmmakers owing to his innovative use of and writings about montage.
Eisenstein was a pioneer in the use of montage, a specific use of film editing. He and his contemporary, Lev Kuleshov, two of the earliest film theorists, argued that montage was the essence of the cinema. His articles and books — particularly Film Form and The Film Sense — explain the significance of montage in detail.
His writings and films have continued to have a major impact on subsequent filmmakers. Eisenstein believed that editing could be used for more than just expounding a scene or moment, through a "linkage" of related images. Eisenstein felt the "collision" of shots could be used to manipulate the emotions of the audience and create film metaphors. He believed that an idea should be derived from the juxtaposition of two independent shots, bringing an element of collage into film. He developed what he called "methods of montage":
Eisenstein taught film making during his career at GIK where he wrote the curricula for the directors' course,[63] his classroom illustrations are reproduced in Vladimir Nizhniĭ's Lessons with Eisenstein. Exercises and examples for students were based on rendering literature such as Honoré de Balzac's Le Père Goriot.[64] Another hypothetical was the staging of the Haitian struggle for independence as depicted in Anatolii Vinogradov's The Black Consul,[65] influenced as well by John Vandercook's Black Majesty.[66] Lessons from this scenario delved into the character of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, replaying his movements, actions and the drama surrounding him. Further to the didactics of literary and dramatic content, Eisenstein taught the technicalities of directing, photography, and editing; while encouraging his students' development of individuality, expressiveness, and creativity.[67] Eisenstein's pedagogy, like his films, were politically charged and contained quotes from Vladimir Lenin interwoven with his teaching.[68]
In his initial films, Eisenstein did not use professional actors. His narratives eschewed individual characters and addressed broad social issues, especially class conflict. He used stock characters, and the roles were filled with untrained people from the appropriate classes; he avoided casting stars.[69] Eisenstein's vision of communism brought him into conflict with officials in the ruling regime of Joseph Stalin. Like many Bolshevik artists, Eisenstein envisioned a new society which would subsidize artists totally, freeing them from the confines of bosses and budgets, leaving them absolutely free to create, but budgets and producers were as significant to the Soviet film industry as the rest of the world. The fledgling war- and revolution-wracked and isolated new nation did not have the resources to nationalize its film industry at first. When it did, limited resources — both monetary and equipment — required production controls as extensive as in the capitalist world.
Anywho, our proud Democratic Dictatorship will be making two moves today. One, Genghis Khan will be moved to the Monarch category, and we will welcome Napoleon Bonaparte as our new Military Leader.
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"In the Soviet army it takes more courage to retreat than advance."
