My Chicago Rant

Archive for February, 2010

Leicester is on the main route north from London, passing through the midlands. As such it is well served by both road and rail links.

Getting to and from Leicester:

The main railway station in Leicester is located on London Road, which is some way from the city centre. There are two main railway services passing through Leicester. Central Trains, operating east-west, whose City Links service running between Norwich and Liverpool passes through Leicester, and Midland Mainline, operating north-south, which provides the train service linking with the capital city of England, St Pancras station in London. The principle Midland Mainline service running through Leicester is Sheffield – London. Despite being away from the city centre the railway station has good links into the city centre from the public transport buses and taxis. If you fancy a bit of nostalgia there is also the Great Central Railway that runs a steam train service between Leicester North and Loughborough Central. (NB. Leicester North station is not used by other national railway companies.)

National Express coach services linking Leicester to other nationwide cities run from the St Margarets Bus Station to the north of the city centre off the A594 on Gravel Street. The bus station is also used by Stage Coach services and the local bus route operators. In January 2006 an extensive refurbishment programme for the bus station was begun.

There is no Leicester airport as such. Leicester does have an aerodrome suitable for small/light aircraft and helicopters but has no facilities for larger aircraft. The main airport that is nearest to Leicester is Nottingham East Midlands, which is about 20 miles (30km) away, a short journey north up the M1 motorway. Also nearby are Birmingham, Luton and Coventry airports. SkyLink runs a direct coach service linking Leicester and East Midlands airport.

Major road routes for Leicester are maintained by the Highways Agency. The main road route to Leicester from the south or north is the M1, the first motorway to be built in England and now linking London and Leeds. The M69 provides a direct link to the M6 motorway heading west to Birmingham and then north as far as Carlisle. Heading east, the main routes are by the A6 which links up with the A14 to Cambridge and A47 that heads out to Peterborough.

Travel in and around Leicester:

The main local public transport bus services in Leicester are operated by Arriva (Fox County) and First Leicester companies. There is also the CentreBus – Leicester which operates services specifically along the main arterial routes and around Leicester City. As mentioned above, the main bus station in Leicester is the St Margarets bus station.

Apart from at the main railway and bus stations, there are numerous taxi ranks around the city from which you can use one of the city’s Hackney cabs. Alternatively, there are plenty of private hire taxi firms you can phone to use. The most central taxi rank to the city centre is at Humberstone gate to the east of the Clock Tower.

As with any major city, Leicester city roads can become very congested, especially during the rush hours. Congestion is not helped by the veritable maze of ‘one-way’ streets encountered in the city centre, which to anyone driving around the city for the first time, become as annoying as they are difficult to navigate. To get around the city centre there is no single ring road. The A594 to the north of the city provides half of a ring road, but to the south there is only a collection of roads that allow you to get around, as opposed to directing you around on a ring road. Within the city all the major shopping areas are well served for car parking with a variety of long and short stay car parks. Bulletins regarding congestion and parking are regularly broadcast by local radio stations.

Being a largely flat city Leicester lends itself well to anyone wishing to cycle in or through it. With over 60 miles of sign-posted cycle-ways and plans for a network of safer on and off road cycle lanes, Leicester is probably one of the more forward thinking cities regarding the use of cycles as a means of local and environmentally friendly transport.

The River Soar runs through Leicester on its way to join the River Trent to the north. It is a small river and is really only navigable by small/pleasure boats. However, the Grand Union Canal also runs through Leicester and was, in its day, a major transport route carrying goods north and south. The Grand Union canal and the River Soar meet in the south of Leicester in a suburb called Ayleston. Today the canal is part of the popular tourist industry in canal-barge holidays. Although not yet started Leicester has ambitious plans to re-develop its waterside area.

General enquiries regarding public transport in Leicester are directed by Leicester City Council to Travel Line UK, alternatively ‘phone 08706082608.

Article by Susan Ashby of Leicester Singles. To read more articles like this or for dating in Leicester visit http://www.Leicester-singles.co.uk

Susan Ashby
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/transport-in-and-around-leicester-138596.html

When you are choosing a school to study food courses at, knowing what to look for in culinary schools means that you will make the right choice the first time. Asking around in the industry to see which schools employers favor is a good way to get an idea of the most respected and highly thought of schools. If location is a factor for you, then you will need to ask around within your city or at least state (unless you don’t mind traveling).

It is believed that these schools have the most success when it comes to job placement after study, with many employers taking students as soon as they graduate.

Cooking is growing in popularity as a career choice due to TV shows and online sites which have shown people how fun it can be to be involved in a culinary career. It’s also reasonably paying and there is plenty of room for advancement as chefs can work their way up within a particular restaurant. In addition, there is also room for advancement in better restaurants and other cooking establishments. Usually the better restaurants pay their chefs higher salaries.

Some of the best culinary schools around the world include:

USA
The Culinary Institute of Canada (Charlottetown, PE)
California School of Culinary Arts Pasadena
Orlando Culinary Academy
Texas Culinary Academy’
Pennsylvania Culinary Institute
The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago
Lincoln College of Technology
The Culinary Institute of America
Le Cordon Bleu College Of Culinary Arts – Las Vegas, Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami and Dallas
The Restaurant School, Philadelphia

UK
School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, DIT, Dublin, Ireland

Oceania
North Shore International Academy, Auckland, New Zealand

Other locations
International Centre for Culinary Arts, Dubai
Culinary Academy Of India

The above schools are all highly regarded in the culinary industry and a qualification from any will result in an outstanding looking resume. But there are many others. And even beyond the school you go to, the cooking establishments you work in and receive further training from will help your resume as well.

At culinary school you will learn about cooking, baking, nutrition, food standards, food identification, food hygiene, recipes preparation, menus and much more. Most schools have outstanding and experienced culinary chefs as teachers.

Culinary schools such as those listed above are equipped with full scale kitchens that replicate those found in the industry. This gives students the chance to gain experience in a real environment as well as utilize all utensils and equipment that would be found in a job situation.

Some culinary schools specialize in particular aspects of the subject such as baking and pastry, fine dining, corporate and event dining and others. There are also more and more online culinary schools where students can study at their own pace and complete practical exercises at home.

Becoming a chef or other professional through completing a certificate or degree at culinary schools is an excellent way to form a solid and exciting career. There are countless opportunities for advancement and there is a lot of money to be made in an industry that is growing more every year.

J. Charleston
http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/what-to-look-for-in-culinary-arts-schools-681711.html

After a week of deadly shootings across the country, including at least six-high profile rampages that killed 24 people, Americans are asking what made these mass murderers snap.

A man guns down five people at a city council meeting in Missouri. In Los Angeles, a standoff leaves four family members and a police officer dead. On the campus of Louisiana Tech, a nursing student kills two of her peers before turning the weapon on herself. In Maryland a gunman opens fire in a restaurant, killing three. Last weekend in suburban Chicago, five people were killed inside a Lane Bryant store.

One expert says the common element in all these horrible crimes is the desire for attention.

“Mass homicide is a crime that can be completely eliminated by the press, teachers, parents and society. If we take the incentive of attention out of it, we can eliminate it,” forensic psychiatrist Dr. Michael Welner said today on “Good Morning America Weekend.”

Kirkwood Killer

Charles Lee “Cookie” Thornton, who shot five people at a city council meeting in Kirkwood, Mo., on Thursday, was described by friends as regular guy who battled the town over parking tickets and the right to speak at council meetings.

“He wasn’t crazy. He knew what he was going to do,” said his mother, Annie Bell Thornton. “All these years, I just feel it had just taken a toll on him.”

Seeking Notoriety

“Rampage killings have an important common thread of someone seeking notoriety. Someone who feels they are a failure, who had high expectations for themselves, and sees the attention that these shooters get and says, ‘I can get that.Somebody will care about my manifesto. Somebody will care about my letter,’” Welner said.

The media’s focus on the manifesto and the life of the criminal appeals to these killers who feel like failures that nobody notices, Welner said.

“[Robert] Hawkins in Nebraska who said ‘I’ll be famous that’s why I did it.’ He taught us something, we made him famous. We should not be focusing on the manifesto. We should be focusing on the suffering,” Welner said, referring to the 19-year-old who opened fired in December in an Omaha mall, killing eight people before turning the gun on himself.

Attention and Anger

“We have to take the Paris Hilton attention-seeking out of crime, or strangers and innocent people will be killed,” Welner said.

Not all of the recent mass killers have seemed like classic attention-seekers, though. For example, the suspect in the Lane Bryant killings shot six people while carrying out a robbery attempt, police said, and he is still on the run. And Thornton had a grudge over a specific battle with city hall.

Welner, however, said that even in these cases the anger that led to the killings was ultimately fueled by the shooters’ perceptions that no one was noticing them.

“It’s about anger in a person who has a sense of failure. What he says is, ‘My life is going nowhere, and I failed. But this is my ticket. I can undo all of my disappointments in an instant. Everybody will care about my grudge, everybody will care about whom I am,’” Welner said.

If a person knows that no matter how many people he kills he will “be ignored or thought of as a pervert or pariah, it takes the incentive out.”

Super Bowl Tragedy Averted

Last Sunday, Kurt William Havelock drove to the site of the Super Bowl with an assault rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition, vowing to “shed the blood of the innocent,” as he wrote in a manifesto that he mailed to media outlets.

For some reason Havelock changed his mind when he reached a parking lot near the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., where fans were enjoying pre-game celebrations. He called the police and turned himself in.

“He thought about others, instead of thinking about himself,” Welner said. “The guy at the Super Bowl turned back because he focused on humanity of the victims.”

“It’s a crime of indulgence, to say my fame is more important than your life, but if some spark of humanity can kindle in someone & if we can make those people & connect to the suffering and humanity of it, then they will stop and they will see there’s no answer,” Welner said.

Henry Funk

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Dan Kazinsky
http://www.articlesbase.com/article-marketing-articles/quick-article-writing-software–unbelievable-technique-696149.html

The Distance Education and Training Council is one of the many institutions that provide accreditation for online and correspondence schools in the United States.

It is a voluntary organization, meaning that a school’s leaders need not apply to be accredited through the organization. The number of online schools that have obtained legitimate accreditation through this organization is limited.

If you are concerned about the accreditation status of the online school that you are thinking of attending, your best resource is the US Department of Education.

Their database allows you to simply type in the name of the institution that you plan to attend, the city and state where the main facility is located and in moments, the website will tell you whether or not the school is accredited.

There are many fine online schools that are not accredited through the Distance Education and Training Council, but received their accreditation through other organizations.

For example, the University of Phoenix is a popular online educator. They are not present on the Distance Education & Training Council database, but according to the United States Dept of Education database, they have accreditation.

A school’s accreditation tells you whether or not the credentials that you earn will be accepted by other institutions. Employers may not look at these credentials, although they may ask you what school you attended.

If however you want to transfer to another school at some point, you need to be sure that the school you are thinking of attending is accredited. Most of the popular online schools do have accreditation, although there are exceptions.

If you do plan to transfer and you have a particular institution in mind, it is a good idea to check with them concerning the transfer credits that they accept. Some of the institutions of higher learning are very “picky”. It is not uncommon for them to reject credits from a community college, whether they are accredited or not.

Accreditation also insures that you are receiving the quality of education that you are paying for. It shows that your teachers are well-trained, that your written materials are up to date and that previous students have not responded negatively to questionnaires and surveys. Without an accreditation process, you would have to carry out your own quality assurance checks.

The Distance Education and Training Council has a good review process and the organization was established many years ago.

Correspondence High Schools like Keystone and James Madison are accredited through their organization. This is helpful information for home-study students and others that cannot attend a conventional high school. Penn Foster is one of the colleges that are accredited through the organization, but of course, there are many others.

Distance learning, particularly online, is become increasingly popular. Because of this, there are some “fly-by-night” schools out there. Before you pay tuition, regardless of how cheap it seems, check the school’s qualifications.

They may be accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council or another accrediting organization. Just be certain that they have the qualification to give you training in the field you wish to pursue.

David Cassell
http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/the-distance-education-training-council-100-way-to-spot-unaccredited-online-schools-721580.html

When you are choosing a school to study food courses at, knowing what to look for in culinary schools means that you will make the right choice the first time. Asking around in the industry to see which schools employers favor is a good way to get an idea of the most respected and highly thought of schools. If location is a factor for you, then you will need to ask around within your city or at least state (unless you don’t mind traveling).

It is believed that these schools have the most success when it comes to job placement after study, with many employers taking students as soon as they graduate.

Cooking is growing in popularity as a career choice due to TV shows and online sites which have shown people how fun it can be to be involved in a culinary career. It’s also reasonably paying and there is plenty of room for advancement as chefs can work their way up within a particular restaurant. In addition, there is also room for advancement in better restaurants and other cooking establishments. Usually the better restaurants pay their chefs higher salaries.

Some of the best culinary schools around the world include:

USA
The Culinary Institute of Canada (Charlottetown, PE)
California School of Culinary Arts Pasadena
Orlando Culinary Academy
Texas Culinary Academy’
Pennsylvania Culinary Institute
The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago
Lincoln College of Technology
The Culinary Institute of America
Le Cordon Bleu College Of Culinary Arts – Las Vegas, Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami and Dallas
The Restaurant School, Philadelphia

UK
School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, DIT, Dublin, Ireland

Oceania
North Shore International Academy, Auckland, New Zealand

Other locations
International Centre for Culinary Arts, Dubai
Culinary Academy Of India

The above schools are all highly regarded in the culinary industry and a qualification from any will result in an outstanding looking resume. But there are many others. And even beyond the school you go to, the cooking establishments you work in and receive further training from will help your resume as well.

At culinary school you will learn about cooking, baking, nutrition, food standards, food identification, food hygiene, recipes preparation, menus and much more. Most schools have outstanding and experienced culinary chefs as teachers.

Culinary schools such as those listed above are equipped with full scale kitchens that replicate those found in the industry. This gives students the chance to gain experience in a real environment as well as utilize all utensils and equipment that would be found in a job situation.

Some culinary schools specialize in particular aspects of the subject such as baking and pastry, fine dining, corporate and event dining and others. There are also more and more online culinary schools where students can study at their own pace and complete practical exercises at home.

Becoming a chef or other professional through completing a certificate or degree at culinary schools is an excellent way to form a solid and exciting career. There are countless opportunities for advancement and there is a lot of money to be made in an industry that is growing more every year.

J. Charleston
http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/what-to-look-for-in-culinary-arts-schools-681711.html

The chronicle of softball is by far the clearest of all documented sports allied histories. Meaning that football account, soccer and golf among other sports all have much more convoluted beginnings compared to softball account. It is a relatively fresh sport that was originated in Chicago in 1887. The yarn has it that after getting the slice of the Yale and Harvard football fixture that a group of juvenile men jumped and one brood man threw a boxing glove at another who proceeded to hit it with a opposite. George Hancock who is often endorsed with creating the willing then drew out a rhombus on the deck and took the hold of a broom to use as a join. They attached more boxing gloves up to be used as an oversized ball. Suffice that it is odd to say the softball memoirs originated inside and was urban by men. The earliest sport was loosely based on a shortened edition of baseball with a smaller tackle and a larger ball. Shortly after this Mr. Hancock painted permanent outline in the gymnasium, primed some new system and coined the sport inside baseball.

Softball record’s popularity grew quickly and Hancock then bent a publication on all the system of the match. Canada adopted the sport as it was calm to play within. Then the diversion took a rotate on the outside fields in the summer and was called indoors/outdoors.

Different teams and leagues began to grow all over the northeast. Chicago while official with the development saw teams popping up in Minnesota, New York and Massachusetts. Then the great gold haste took easterners west to achieve assets and along with them, they brought there sports, which helped grow the west coasts teams.

Women’s softball was also developed in Chicago and West Division High was the first to have a panel in 1895. They played generally indoors and were not primarily recognized as comparable to the men. It took the women’s leagues much longer to benefit credibility and the heartfelt crossover was the advance in popularity of baseball. As baseball became much more accepted the male players shifted to it while the women began to make softball there own. Now a day’s both men and women of all ages can enjoy the sport.

Throughout the 1900’s leagues and tournaments began to pop up everywhere. The National Championship was first played in Chicago in 1933 and it included both male and female competitors. The sixties and seventies saw professional leagues come to go for women. The slow pitch resolute evolved on the international degree with the Softball World Championships in 1965. It ultimately set the platform for the Olympics which greatly improved softball annals. The contest began to loosen as players became much superior and stronger and fewer plunging and security were incorporated. The officials and high standing certitude makers of the leagues around the world began to make a move swiftly to pitch softball start around the 1980’s and 90’s. At first the changes were met with much resistance but the ready has since embraced the changes.

Fast pitch has tainted the appearance of the willing dramatically. The sport is much more, a match of rush and apology fairly than affront and intensity and it has also produced much more media coverage and advance in the sport than ever.

The match of softball is appealing to so many levels of our citizens. Young men and women can enjoy the contest on whichever a societal or competitive altitude. The thousands of softball leagues around the country afford for a great party scenery. College teams flourish and the international location is more admired than ever. Softball annals has come such a long way in the last hundred years from poles and boxing gloves to international notoriety, so goes the saga of softball.

Jeffrey Seymour
http://www.articlesbase.com/cricket-articles/softball-and-its-history-711297.html

Often I wondered what it could be like to grow up with one’s parents in prison. A few days ago I brought up this question during a meeting with a group of educators in Chicago. But their varying views didn’t suffice my curiosity.

There are over 2 million children in the US who have one or more parents in prison. If we begin with the idea that a child needs his parents, it would be important to study how parental absence affects a child.

In ‘Between Parents and Child’ Dr Haim Ginott underscores the fact that a child’s greatest fear is of being unloved or abandoned by his parents. And this same belief was echoed and immortalized by John Steinbeck in his novel ‘East of Eden.’ ”The greatest terror a child can have is that he is not loved, and rejection is the hell he fears…And with rejection comes anger and with angers some kind of crime in revenge.” Deep inside him, a child doesn’t understand why his parent left. To him, he has been abandoned, therefore unattended, unloved and rejected. To the child, the reason of his parent’s imprisonment or divorce takes a back seat to the simple fact that the parent is gone and will no longer be involved in the child’s day-to-day life.

If our children are the backbone of our society then both divorce and parental incarceration go against the best interest of our future society. Should a child have more time to spend with his imprisoned or non-custodial parent?

Parenting is a social responsibility and every parent should have the right to parenting: imprisoned, divorced or otherwise. But the idea of the right to parenting by the imprisoned should not be confused with comfort. It isn’t the prison that is the punishment but the deprivation of liberty, no comfort in the world can compensate for a locked door!

A child’s fundamental right is to receive love from his parents; and reciprocally every parent should have the right to give that love to their child. Given that 80% of prisoners  in the US come from fatherless homes, future crimes as well as the number of criminals could be greatly reduced if our lawmakers focused on building effective measures to preserve the traditional idea of “family”. Through accessible free-counseling, and support groups, through information and education this could be achieved!

However, it is important to underline that there is strong public opinion against forcing couples to stay together. So how do we prevent families from breaking up in the first place? In our childhood, we study the basics of everything…some science, some math, some history and geography but we remain unexposed to something more important: studies of the importance of our relationship with others. Decades ago, sex-education was put in place by our past lawmakers as part of the process to deal with teenage pregnancy and the spread of STD s. If our current lawmakers made an effort to consider the inclusion of some form of “relationship-education” in educational institutions like they did for sex-education in the past, the health of our society is more likely to improve. And with some luck, our future generation would probably embrace the idea of reformation through the preservation of traditional social values.

Alistair Banerjee
http://www.articlesbase.com/causes-and-organizations-articles/parental-incarceration-and-divorce-my-daddy-doesnt-love-me-anymore-by-alistair-banerjee-730400.html

 

THE ANCIENT SPARTANS

Ancient Sparta is a name that everybody knows and recognises. The bravery of Leonidas and the 300 are the heroic basis of myriad Hollywood blockbusters. The betrayal of Menelaos, by beautiful Helen of Troy, is enshrined in glorious Homeric myth and legend. Documentaries and books portray the brutal military regime, and the abhorrent practice of exposing weak infants in the harsh Taygetos Mountains.

As any local in the modern town will tell you, the reality of Spartan society was very different from the modern perceptions. The society of the Ancient Spartans was surprisingly sophisticated, their culture as rich as any other city in Ancient Greece.

BEGINNINGS

Surprisingly to some, the history of the Ancient Spartans does not begin with the Homeric Trojan War. The realm of Menelaos and Helen existed nearly a century before the dawn of historical Ancient Sparta. This was an older civilisation, semi-mythical even to the Dorian Spartans of Leonidas. Some authorities believe that the kingdom of Menelaos, known as Lakedaimon, was based at nearby Ancient Pellanas, not Sparta.

Excavations there are ongoing, but are yet to find concrete evidence of any palace. The historical Sparta of Leonidas begins with the Dorian Greek invasion. Tribes migrating from north-eastern Greece displaced the ‘long-haired’ Achaean Greeks of Homeric legend.

The rise of Ancient Sparta began in about 750 BC, when the emerging Spartan state systematically subdued the populations of the surrounding areas. The nearby village of Amyclae was incorporated into the original four settlements and Messinia was invaded, the population subjugated as helots. These were not quite slaves, but had few rights and were forced to farm the land, giving half of the produce to Sparta.

The lands of Messinia were parcelled out to Spartan warrior-citizens, known as Spartiates. During this period, the Spartan constitution was formulated, and the state elected two kings, ruling alongside a council of elders and demos of male citizens. Helots and inhabitants of outlying areas, the Perioikoi, were denied a vote. This is very similar to the ‘democracy’ of Athens, where only the richest males had the right to vote.

THE RISE OF ANCIENT SPARTA

Between 680 and 660 BC, the Spartan army adopted the hoplite method of fighting, which would become the mainstay of their tactics for many centuries. In 669, the army suffered a reverse against the neighbouring Argives, and had to put down a Messinian revolt in the 650’s. Despite this, the reform continued and the revolt was crushed, within ten years. Finally, Messinia was completely conquered and Sparta began to look further afield.

The famous laws of Lycurgus were crafted to stabilise the society and were impressed into the psyche of all Spartans. Military training became compulsory for all citizen males; from the age of seven, their lives were dictated by unbreakable rules. The Messinian Helots provided food, and the Perekoi became the craftsmen and merchants, allowing Ancient Sparta to establish a professional army. The constant training and hardening, by beatings, austere conditions and rigid selection, led to a highly trained and elite fighting force, devoted entirely to the law.

The whole system discouraged the gathering of wealth into a few hands, avoiding material imbalances that could lead to tyranny, coups or revolts. The use of professional troops, against the part-time hoplites of other Greek states, was the major factor in the growing Spartan dominance. By the middle of the 6th century, Ancient Sparta had conquered its near neighbours and was the dominant power in the Peloponnesian league, a major player in Greek politics.

THE PERSIAN EXPANSION

Throughout the sixth century BC, the Persian Empire gradually developed. Starting as a loose confederation of tribes in modern day Iran, it grew and dominated the Middle and Near East. The great cities of Babylon, Memphis and Susa, fell to the well equipped and well drilled army of Cyrus the Great. By 512 the new king, Darius, overran the Greek cities in Asia Minor and began to influence their politics.

After a failed revolt by these cities, in 494, King Xerxes of Persia decided to punish the Greeks, especially the Athenians, key supporters of this Ionian revolt. Xerxes invaded, but the resulting Battle of Marathon saw defeat at the hands of the Athenians and their allies. Ancient Sparta declined to send an army until their religious ceremonies were over, by which time the battle was won.

480 BC saw the pinnacle of Spartan history, the Battle of Thermopylae, a name that has echoed down through history. Despite the subsequent overestimation of Persian numbers and the underestimation of Greek numbers, it was still an act of steadfast bravery. Thermopylae was an awesome display of Spartan prowess, courage and strength.

The Persian king, Xerxes, timed his invasion to coincide with religious festivals, preventing many of the Greek city states from sending armies. Despite this, many states sent small contingents, including the famous 300 Spartans under Leonidas, the overall General. The Greek forces probably numbered about 7000, and the Persian force up to 250 000 men, a vast difference in strength.

After four days of waiting for the Greeks to accept terms and disperse, Xerxes sent in his first wave of troops, demanding annihilation of the Greeks. Here his plan faltered; the terrain funnelled his army onto a narrow front and neutralised the effect of numbers. The superior training and morale of the Ancient Spartan phalanxes held the ‘Hot Gates’, and the initial assault was cut to pieces. The next day saw an assault by the elite 10 000 immortals, but they were also forced back, in shame.

The course of the battle now swung against the Greek forces. The infamous traitor, Ephialtes, led a force of 40 000 Persians along a goat path, bringing them around the rear of the Greeks. The guarding force of 1000 Phocians fled, and the encirclement of the advance force was almost complete. Hearing of this, Leonidas dismissed the Greek allies, leaving only the 300 Spartans, 900 Messinian Helots and 700 Thespian volunteers. They made a last stand on a hill behind the pass, dying to a man and inspiring generals for centuries.

One year later, at Platea, 10 000 Ancient Spartan warriors, part of a force of about 45 000 hoplites, and an uncertain number of light troops, defeated a huge Persian force. This, along with the victory of the Athenian navy in the battle of Salamis, crushed Persian hopes forever. They never again invaded Greece and their focus shifted to using their wealth and prestige to influence Greek politics.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS

The end of the fifth century BC saw the uneasy alliance between Athens and Ancient Sparta, the two major powers in Greece, break down. At first, there was no outright declaration of war, but the two city states began playing the political game, wrangling and manipulating their allies. Athens exerted pressure on the city of Corinth and its colonies in Sicily, establishing its own outposts on that island. Corinth, alarmed by this, turned to Sparta for help, and threatened to leave the Peloponnesian League.

The Athenians also intrigued against another city, Megara, neighbour of Corinth, by restricting their rights to trade in Athens. Pressure built and war broke out, becoming a battle of attrition. Despite the superior initial strength of the Spartan armies, the strong defensive walls and powerful navy of Athens forced a stalemate.

By 421 BC both cities were feeling the strain upon their treasuries and armies. An uneasy truce was called, lasting until 415, when the Athenians suffered a major defeat whilst attempting to conquer Sicily. Despite this, Ancient Sparta failed to take advantage of this reversal and again offered peace. This was gratefully accepted and lasted until 404 BC. For a while, Sparta was the dominant force in the Eastern Mediterranean, but never fully exploited its position.

Persian gold equipped a new Spartan fleet, which crushed the Athenian navy in the Hellespont. Athens had no option but to surrender, and the Spartan terms were harsh. Athens had to tear down its walls and disband its fleet.

Please visit www.eccentric-englishman.com>www.eccentric-englishman.com for more history of Lakonia.

 

www.experiment-resources.com

www.amethyst-web.net

Martyn Shuttleworth

As the spring semester of high school resumes in Chicago, many students begin to have prom on their minds.  Prom committees have usually formed at this point and a lot of the necessary steps to plan the event have already taken place.  Planning a Chicago prom can be quite a task and can often go unrecognized and unrewarded.  Often times if the prom dance is a flop the members of the committee will take a lot of the heat.  So to help avoid some of those unnecessary negative comments we’ve created a step by step guide to help aid you in the planning of your Chicago Prom.

So where do we begin?  When is the right time to start thinking prom?  The correct answer would one year prior to the date. There are several things that will need to be taken care of that time.  Listed below are a few steps you’ll want to take one year prior to your Chicago Prom event……

• Choose prom committee members and create sub-committees.  Without the prom committee there would be no prom, so having the right leaders on the committee can often make or break your event.  Your Chicago Prom committee should be made up of advisors and various student volunteers.
• Set a realistic budget.  Creating a realistic budget is a very important step in planning a prom.  You’ll want to begin by collecting the most detailed information on how much each element will cost.  This will give you a good idea for how much to budget for.  You’ll then want to take things into account like how much money will be coming from fundraising and from sponsors.   From there you can then determine how many tickets you’ll need to sell to break even for the event.
• Set the date.  Setting a date for your event can be very difficult.  You’ll want to take things into account like holidays, school activities, sporting events, and even neighboring school’s prom dates.  You’ll want to choose a date that coincides with all of those things.  Nine times out of ten you probably you won’t be able to please everyone with the selected date. 
• Choose you location/venue.  You’ve successfully created a budget and selected a date now it’s time to book a venue.  When choosing a venue you’ll want to find a facility that will be able to hold your crowd comfortably.  You’ll also want to look into food and catering options at those venues.  If you’re planning on having entertainment and dancing, will the venue be able to accommodate those needs?  As you search for venues you’ll notice a lot of reception halls prefer not to host school proms on Saturday evenings because they can conflict with their high priority wedding dates.  Make sure you confirm your venue early as the longer you wait the harder it’ll be to settle on the right place.

After you’ve done all the steps above you’re well on your way to creating a successful Chicago prom, you can now relax and have the next couple months off before the next batch of planning begins.  Around 8 months before your prom you’ll want to pick up with the committee meetings again and begin the next stages.

• Choose a theme.  Choosing a prom theme often can be one of the most important decisions your prom committee will make.  Choosing the right theme can make your prom stand out from others in the past and can be that key component in creating a memorable night.  When choosing a theme you’ll want to think of the mood you’d like to portray that night.  You’ll want to take into consideration whether you’d like to portray a fun mood, romantic mood, or even a mysterious mood.  A good Chicago prom theme should revolve around an innovative title, unique decorations, and a treasured song.  This is when you’ll want a lot of input from your committee members.
• Discuss fundraising opportunities.   Fundraising is very important in planning a Chicago prom and should never be overlooked.  After adding up the total expenses and dividing it by the number of students attending the event the cost per ticket can many times be rather expensive.  Students are usually aware that prom isn’t cheap so fundraisers are often appreciated.  There are hundreds of fundraising ideas available on the internet and you should utilized them when planning your event.
• Book your Disc Jockey.  This is another crucial and overlooked step that many don’t spend a lot of time on.  The success of your event a lot of times rides on the music that’s to be played and the DJ that’s playing it.  There are hundreds of Chicago DJ companies and only a handful of good ones.  Make sure you spend some time when selecting your entertainment.  Prices can vary greatly; most Chicago Prom DJs are priced around $1,000 and go up from there.  You’ll want to hire an experienced disc jockey that specializes in prom entertainment, not just your average wedding DJ.
• Begin discussing decoration ideas.   Now is the time when you’ll want to start talking decorations.  You’ll want to choose decorations that revolve around your theme for the evening.  As you plan for you Chicago Prom you’ll be surprised as to all the decorations available out there.  You can always buy pre-assembled decorations, but they’ll cost you.  Talk with your committee members and see what they can come up with on their own.  This can help save on the decoration costs.  A lot of schools in Chicago have actually cut back on their decorations and have invested their money into the dinner and the entertainment.  This may be an route you’d like to take.

You’ve now completed most of the important steps towards planning your Chicago Prom.  We recommend waiting about 2 or 3 months prior to your prom before you begin with the next steps. 

• Order invitations, programs, party items, and tickets.  Now is the time when you’ll want to send out for these important items.  It can sometimes take a few weeks to get things printed so be sure to get your final work to the printers before it’s too late.  You’ll also want to order your royalty party items like crowns, sashes, tiaras, and etc.
• Begin your advertising campaign.   You’ll want to start hyping the excitement of your Chicago prom.  You may want to consider hanging posters, placing ads in the school newspapers, hand our flyers, and/or even run commercials on your student radio station.
• Book a photographer.  At this time you’ll want to finalize your photographer.  You’ll want to decide how pictures will be taken that night and where in the venue will they run their operation.  Often times schools will use their yearbook photographers for the miscellaneous photos and then hire another professional photographer for portraits.  You’ll want to consider several options with your prom committee.

The time has finally arrived and it’s now 2 weeks prior to your event.  It’s crunch time and there are a few other details that’ll need to be taken care of….

• Send out your invitations and start selling your tickets.  Choose a central location in your school to setup a ticket sales booth.  Make sure the kids are aware of this location.  You may want to sell tickets at normal prices for the first week and then raise the price as the event draws nearer.  This will encourage immediate ticket sales and will prevent students from holding off until the last day to purchase their tickets.
• Confirm your vendors.  Now is the time when you should finalize all the details with your venue, DJ, caterer, and photographer.  You’ll want to make sure everyone’s timeline is laid out the same and there aren’t any conflicting schedules.  You’ll also want to confirm your theme song with your Chicago Prom DJ.  Don’t forget to call your chaperones as too!
• Setup a schedule for decorating your venue.  You’ll want to assign committee members the task of decorating the venue.  Make sure you confirm times with the venue and they are ok with you hanging decorations.  You’ll want to take time and read through any instructions kits that came with your decorations.  Make sure all the pieces are included in your kits and figure out the estimated time it’ll take to set them all up.
• Hold nominations for prom court.  This job usually falls under your job description as well.  You’ll want to decide how nominations will be made and who will conduct them at the event.

After you’ve completed the above steps you should be well on your way to create a successful Chicago Prom.  As you can see a lot of work and time goes into planning a big event like this.  When it’s all said in done though, the students you work with will remember this night for the rest of their lives.

Stevie Dee
http://www.articlesbase.com/teenagers-articles/planning-your-chicago-prom-event-706688.html