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It is usually said that in the year of 1621, in the colony of Plymouth, the English colonists and the Wampanoag Indians got together and shared a fantastic fall harvest banquet to celebrate the bounteousness from the fertile earth. Today this celebratory banquet is considered as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the early days of the colonies. While this ancient celebration is regarded as the first Thanksgiving feast; it is simply one of the numerous celebrations of the harvest season and human thankfulness for the bounties of Mother nature. Indeed, many Native American groups such as Comanche, Cheyenne, Arapaho, etc. celebrated the end of the harvest season many centuries before the coming of the Europeans. These festivities included ceremonial dances, races, games and other celebrations of thankfulness.Long before the discovery of the American continent and the colonization by the Europeans, Native Americans, like Apache, Navajo, Huron, Iroquois, Sioux and many others, organized festivals at the end of the harvest

After World War II had ended, Japan was devastated. All the large cities (with the exception of Kyoto), the industries and the transportation networks were severely damaged. A severe shortage of food continued for several years.

The whole operation was mainly carried out by the United States.

Over 500 military officers committed suicide right after Japan surrendered, and many hundreds more were executed for committing war crimes.

Sales from Apple's music-related products and services, which include iTunes, rose 38% from a year earlier to $832 million for the quarter ended Sept. 27

Apple sold 11.1 million iPods during the quarter, up 8% from a year earlier.

The history of Thanksgiving goes much further back than Plymouth and 1621. In fact, people across the world from every culture have been celebrating and giving thanks for thousands of years. In this country, long before English colonists arrived, Native People celebrated many different days of thanksgiving. “Strawberry Thanksgiving” and “Green Corn Thanksgiving” are just two of kinds of celebrations for the Wampanoag and other Native People. In 1621, the English colonists at Plymouth (some people call them “Pilgrims” today) had a three-day feast to celebrate their first harvest. More than 90 native Wampanoag People joined the 50 English colonists in the festivities. Historians don­t know for sure why the Wampanoag joined the gathering or what activities went on for those three days. Form the one short paragraph that was written about the celebration at the time, we know that they ate, drank, and played games. Back in England, English people celebrated the harvest by feasting and playing games in much the same way. The English did not call the 1621 event a “thanksgiving.” A day of “thanksgiving” was very different for the colonists. It was a day of prayer to thank God when something really good happened. The English actually had their first thanksgiving in the summer of 1623. On this day they gave thanks for the rain that ended a long drought.

A deadly toxin, arsenic is known for its ability to end life.

Since the 1990s, scientists have discovered about 20 species of bizarre bacteria that "breathe" arsenic.

They are typically found in environments where oxygen is scarce and have been forced to survive on whatever strange substance is easily available.

The season is winding down. Routines change, friendships have grown, priorities change. As a player, what should you do now? When practice time comes and there is no practice, what do you do? When there are no games to prepare for, what do you do with your time? Here are a just a few thoughts I had as to how to recover and prepare for the next season. 1. Take 3 - 4 weeks to relax. It has been a long, physically and mentally draining season. If you want to improve, you have to give yourself a chance to recover. 2. Catch up and get ahead of your schoolwork. 3. Talk to your coach and evaluate your season. Talk about what you did well and what you did not. Determine the areas you need to improve on. Discuss the things you would like to do and how to accomplish them. 4. After taking a month off, start on your off-season workout program. The program should be about 75% skill work and 25% play. 5. Develop your shooting stroke. If you want to become a GREAT shooter and raise your percentage, it MUST happen during the off season. It's just TOO difficult to develop these skills and improve during the season. It must be done during the off season! 6. Start a strength training program. Your objective should be to gain strength from now until the end of the summer. 7. As you enter the summer, add more play to your workout. You should be at about 50% skill work, 50% play. Don't neglect your weight work. Great strength gains can be made during this period. 8. Go to camp. Learn form other coaches, play against different players. The more diverse your summer experience, the better player you will become. 9. When the summer is over, your routine changes. GET AHEAD in the classroom. Once the season starts, it is easy for your schoolwork to slip. 10. Change your workout routine to 25% skill, 75% play. 11. Switch you strength training routine to an endurance and strength maintenance routine. 12. A week before the season, take some time off. Get ready to go.

British animal lovers would rather spend quality time with their pets at the end of a busy day than with their human pals, suggests the results of this year's Pet Census, a national survey carried out annually on behalf of The Blue Cross. 

15%  Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams   13%  Outkast - Hey Ya!   12%  Avril Lavigne - My Happy Ending     9%  Evanescence - My Immortal     8%  Hoobastank - The Reason     8%  Destiny's Child - Lose My Breath     8%  Green Day - American Idiot     7%  Maroon5 - She Will Be Loved     6%  Britney Spears - Toxic     6%  Maroon5 - This Love     4%  Gwen Stefani - What You Waiting For?     2%  No Doubt - It's My Life     2%  Britney Spears - Everytime

The Chesapeake Bay, forexample, has been polluted with the nutrients nitrogen andphosphorus and with excess sediment caused, in part, by urbanrunoff. The excess nutrients cause algae blooms that blocksunlight from reaching bay grasses-which are a source of food,shelter, and nursery grounds for many aquatic species.

In aneffort to control nutrient pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, theExecutive Council of the Chesapeake Bay Program" established agoal to reduce the nitrogen and phosphorus entering theChesapeake Bay by 40 percent, including through control of runofffrom urban areas.

Looks like a pillar of iTunes content might be on the brink of collapse -- Universal Music, the world's largest music business, has officially opted not to renew its contract with Apple for vending music on the iTunes Music Store. We don't know specifically what caused Universal to turn away -- perhaps it's the weight of the rising anti-DRM movement among consumers, or perhaps it's because of Stevie J.'s brash negotiating tactics, continual refusal to hand over iPod cash, or oceanic persistence in keeping tracks locked in at $0.99. Whatever the reason, we can't say we're all that surprised; Universal's been a pain in Apple's ass for years now. So what's the end result? Well, Universal music will still be sold through iTunes at will, so that means consumers can keep buying tracks for the time being, but Apple runs the risk of losing Universal's content on very short notice if the companies don't make happy with one another and put pen to paper once more.

n the battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Ieyasu defeated the Hideyori loyalists and other Western rivals

Every daimyo was also required to spend every second year in Edo.

On the other hand, he enforced the suppression and persecution of Christianity from 1614 on.

Thanksgiving Feast of 1621, but few realize that it was not the first festival of its kind in North America. Long before Europeans set foot in the Americas, native peoples sought to insure a good harvest with dances and rituals such as the Green Corn Dance of the Cherokees.

The first Thanksgiving service known to be held by Europeans in North America occurred on May 27, 1578 in Newfoundland, although earlier Church-type services were probably held by Spaniards in La Florida. However, for British New England, some historians believe that the Popham Colony in Maine conducted a Thanksgiving service in 1607 (see Sources: Greif, 208-209; Gould, and Hatch). In the same year, Jamestown colonists gave thanks for their safe arrival, and another service was held in 1610 when a supply ship arrived after a harsh winter. Berkley Hundred settlers held a Thanksgiving service in accordance with their charter which stated that the day of their arrival in Virginia should be observed yearly as a day of Thanksgiving, but within a few years an Indian uprising ended further services (Dabney). Thus British colonists held several Thanksgiving services in America before the Pilgrim's celebration in 1621.

In 1623, the Pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation, Massachusetts, held another day of Thanksgiving. As a drought was destroying their crops, colonists prayed and fasted for relief; the rains came a few days later. And not long after, Captain Miles Standish arrived with staples and news that a Dutch supply ship was on its way. Because of all this good fortune, colonists held a day of Thanksgiving and prayer on June 30. This 1623 festival appears to have been the origin of our Thanksgiving Day because it combined a religious and social celebration.

reason for the failure of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to win the World Series in the 86-year period from 1918 until 2004.

begun after the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth, sometimes called The Bambino, to the New York Yankees in the off-season of 1919-1920.

The curse

The nation of Japan was probably born of the union of two peoples: one from Polynesia or the Malay Peninsula and one from elsewhere in Asia.

About 300 BC, the Japanese began growing rice, which would become the nation's agricultural staple.

From the 500s to the 700s, Japanese society developed quickly—partly because of its close relationship with neighboring China and the magnificent Tang Dynasty.

The emotional effects of cancer A diagnosis of cancer often means we experience a whole range of emotions. These may include shock, anxiety, sadness, relief, uncertainty and for some people, depression.

About Lung Cancer Lung Cancer is a disease that begins in the tissue of the lungs. The lungs are sponge-like organs that are part of the respiratory system. During breathing, air enters the mouth or nasal passage and travels down the trachea. The trachea splits into two sets of bronchial tubes that lead to the left and right lung. The bronchi branch off into smaller and smaller tubes that eventually end in small balloon-like sacs known as alveoli. The alveoli are where oxygen, carbon dioxide, and other substances are exchanged between the lungs and the blood stream.

Japan entered into its second major prehistoric period, a civilized era known as the Yayoi period.

he name Yayoi is derived from an area Tokyo known as Yayoi, where the first documented pottery from this period was discovered in an archaeological excavation in 1884.

ron and bronze materials are believed to have been exchanged with Japanese envoys either for token tributes or prisoners of war.

Interestingly enough, stock prices suggest the opposite. We haven't sold off like this since the Depression. Even during the inflation crisis of the 1970's, the most we ever sold off was 17%. Being down 40% on the year must be very scary for market bears. Everyone wants to tell you that valuations don't matter but I have a secret for you - they do. It's hard to find a stock with a p/e over 20 anymore. Apple's market cap is down to $79 billion and yet it will have $30 billion in cash on its balance sheet by year end.Apple's not the only one either. Corporate America has never been more fiscally responsible. Record amounts of cash sit on balance sheets across many different sectors. Leverage has been limited to consumers and banks.

Outstanding credit card debt sits at $971 billion for the United States. This amounts to approximately $3,000 per person. This problem is nowhere near the problems that we were faced with earlier in the year in the financial sector. Government stimulus can easily fix the problem of consumer leverage. With a shot of confidence, the consumer will prove resilient once again.