Google

Posted on December 17, 2010 by joe

“Google”. Wikipedia. 2010. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 17 Dec 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products,[6] and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program.[3][7] The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, often dubbed the “Google Guys”,[8][9][10] while the two were attending Stanford University as Ph.D. candidates. It was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998, and its initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. The company’s stated mission from the outset was “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”,[11] and the company’s unofficial slogan – coined by Google engineer Paul Buchheit – is “Don’t be evil”.[12][13] In 2006, the company moved to their current headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Google runs over one million servers in data centers around the world,[14] and processes over one billion search requests[15] and about twenty-four petabytes of user-generated data every day.[16][17][18][19] Google’s rapid growth since its incorporation has triggered a chain of products, acquisitions, and partnerships beyond the company’s core search engine. The company offers online productivity software, such as its Gmail e-mail software, and social networking tools, including Orkut and, more recently, Google Buzz. Google’s products extend to the desktop as well, with applications such as the web browser Google Chrome, the Picasa photo organization and editing software, and the Google Talk instant messaging application. Notably, Google leads the development of the Android mobile phone operating system, used on a number of phones such as the Nexus One and Motorola Droid. Alexa lists the main U.S.-focused google.com site as the Internet’s most visited website, and numerous international google sites (google.co.in, google.co.uk etc.) are in the top hundred, as are several other Google-owned sites such as Youtube, Blogger, and Orkut.[20] Google is also BrandZ’s most powerful brand in the world.[21] The dominant market position of Google’s services has led to criticism of the company over issues including privacy, copyright, and censorship.[22][23]

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McGill University

Posted on December 17, 2010 by joe

“McGill University”. Wikipedia. 2010. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 17 Dec 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGill_University

McGill University is a research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant, from Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university. Founded in 1821, McGill is one of the oldest universities in Canada, chartered during the British colonial era, 46 years before the Canadian Confederation.
McGill’s main campus is set upon 32 hectares (80 acres) at the foot of Mount Royal in Downtown Montreal. A second campus, the Macdonald Campus, is situated on 6.5 square kilometres (1,600 acres) of fields and forested land in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, 30 kilometres west of the downtown campus. With 21 faculties and professional schools, McGill offers degrees and diplomas in over 300 fields of study, including medicine and law. Although the language of instruction is English, students have the right to submit any graded work in English or in French, except when learning a particular language is an objective of the course. Over 34,000 students attend McGill, with international students comprising one-fifth of the student population.
McGill consistently ranks the top university in Canada by Macleans, and among the top 20 universities worldwide according to the Times Higher Education and US News & World Report. With around 200,000 living alumni worldwide, students and professors at McGill have been recognized in fields ranging from the arts and sciences, to business, politics, and sports. Notable alumni include six Nobel Laureates, one hundred thirty-one Rhodes Scholars, three astronauts, two Canadian prime ministers, four justices of the Canadian Supreme Court, three foreign leaders, nine Academy Award winners, three Pulitzer Prize winners, and twenty-eight Olympic medalists.

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War and Peace

Posted on December 17, 2010 by emily

“War and Peace”. Wikipedia. 2010. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 17 Dec 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Peace

War and Peace is famously long for a novel (though not the longest by any means). It is subdivided into four books or volumes, each with subparts containing many chapters.
Tolstoy came up with the title, and some of his themes, from an 1861 work of Proudhon: La Guerre et la Paix (‘War and Peace’ in French). Tolstoy had served in the Crimean War and written a series of short stories and novellas featuring scenes of war.
He began writing War and Peace in the year that he finally married and settled down at his country estate. The first half of the book was written under the name “1805″.
During the writing of the second half, he read widely and acknowledged Schopenhauer as one of his main inspirations. However, Tolstoy developed his own views of history and the role of the individual within it.[5]
The novel can be generally classified as historical fiction. It contains elements present in many types of popular 18th and 19th century literature, especially the romance novel. War and Peace attains its literary status by transcending genres.
Tolstoy was instrumental in bringing a new kind of consciousness to the novel. His narrative structure is noted for its “god-like” ability to hover over and within events, but also in the way it swiftly and seamlessly portrayed a particular character’s point of view.[6] His use of visual detail is often cinematic in its scope, using the literary equivalents of panning, wide shots and close-ups, to give dramatic interest to battles and ballrooms alike. These devices, while not exclusive to Tolstoy, are part of the new style of the novel that arose in the mid-19th century and of which Tolstoy proved himself a master.[7]

Tolstoy incorporated extensive historical research. He was also influenced by many other novels.[8] A veteran of the Crimean War, Tolstoy was quite critical of standard history, especially the standards of military history, in War and Peace. Tolstoy read all the standard histories available in Russian and French about the Napoleonic Wars and combined more traditional historical writing with the novel form. He explains at the start of the novel’s third volume his own views on how history ought to be written. His aim was to blur the line between fiction and history, in order to get closer to the truth, as he states in Volume II.
The novel is set 60 years earlier than the time at which Tolstoy wrote it, “in the days of our grandfathers”, as he puts it. He had spoken with people who had lived through war during the French invasion of Russia in 1812, so the book is also, in part, accurate ethnography fictionalized. He read letters, journals, autobiographical and biographical materials pertaining to Napoleon and the dozens of other historical characters in the novel. There are approximately 160 real persons named or referred to in War and Peace.[9]

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University of Western Ontario

Posted on December 17, 2010 by corey

“University of Western Ontario”. Wikipedia. 2010. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 17 Dec 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Western_Ontario

The University of Western Ontario (known as Western or UWO) is a public research university located in London, Ontario. It was founded in 1878 by Bishop Isaac Hellmuth of Bishop’s University and the Anglican Diocese of Huron as The Western University of London Ontario. Huron College, established in 1863 as an Anglican theological school, provided the basis for the new university.[3] The University covers 395 acres (1.6 km²) of land on the north branch of the Thames River and the main campus consists of 75 buildings. The university also has extensive land holdings outside of the main campus.
The school colours are purple and white due to its historical connection with Bishop’s, and the school’s motto is Veritas et utilitas, meaning Truth and usefulness.[3] The University’s Chancellor is John Thompson, and its President is Dr. Amit Chakma. Through its twelve faculties and schools, and three affiliated colleges, the University offers more than 200 different degree and diploma programs.

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