Spamming Spree ( Version 3 )

OK, make that Ghost voice into a Zombie voice... I`m actually a Zombie

*where is my shotgun?*
[SIZE=1]i got last word....[/SIZE]

here next to me

Malwa (Malvi:माळवा) is a region in western India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin in the western part of Madhya Pradesh state. This region had been a separate political unit from the time of the Aryan tribe of Malavas until 1947, when the British Malwa Agency was merged into Madhya Bharat. Although political borders have fluctuated throughout history, the region has developed its own distinct culture and language. The plateau that forms a large part of the region is named the Malwa Plateau, after the region. The average elevation of the Malwa plateau is 500 metres, and the landscape generally slopes towards the north. Most of the region is drained by the Chambal River and its tributaries; the western part is drained by the upper reaches of the Mahi River. Ujjain was the political, economic, and cultural capital of the region in ancient times, and Indore is presently the largest city and commercial centre. Overall, agriculture is the main occupation of the people of Malwa. The region has been one of the important producers of opium in the world. Cotton and soybeans are other important cash crops, and textiles are a major industry.

The region includes the Madhya Pradesh districts of Dewas, Dhar, Indore, Jhabua, Mandsaur, Neemuch, Rajgarh, Ratlam, Shajapur, Ujjain, and parts of Guna and Sehore, and the Rajasthan districts of Jhalawar and parts of Banswara and Chittorgarh. Politically and administratively, the definition of Malwa is sometimes extended to include the Nimar region south of the Vindhyas. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic upland south of the Vindhyas, which includes the Malwa region and extends east to include the upper basin of the Betwa and the headwaters of the Dhasan and Ken rivers. The region has a tropical climate with dry deciduous forests that are home to a number of tribes, most important of them being the Bhils. The culture of the region has had influences from Gujarati, Rajasthani and Marathi cultures. Malvi is the most commonly used language, especially in rural areas, while Hindi is widely understood in cities. Major places of tourist interest include Ujjain, Mandu, Maheshwar and Indore.

The first significant kingdom in the region was Avanti, an important power in western India by around 500 BCE, when it was annexed by the Maurya Empire. The 5th-century Gupta period was a golden age in the history of Malwa. The dynasties of the Parmaras, the Malwa sultans, and the Marathas have ruled Malwa at various times. The region has given the world prominent leaders in the arts and sciences, including the poet and dramatist Kalidasa, the author Bhartrihari, the mathematicians and astronomers Varahamihira and Brahmagupta, and the polymath king Bhoj.

Fibrosarcoma (fibroblastic sarcoma) is a malignant tumor derived from fibrous connective tissue and characterized by immature proliferating fibroblasts or undifferentiated anaplastic spindle cells.

Pathology
The tumor may present different degrees of differentiation: low grade (differentiated), intermediate malignancy and high malignancy (anaplastic). Depending on this differentiation, tumor cells may resemble mature fibroblasts (spindle-shaped), secreting collagen, with rare mitoses. These cells are arranged in short fascicles which split and merge, giving the appearance of "fish bone". Poorly differentiated tumors consist in more atypical cells, pleomorphic, giant cells, multinucleated, numerous atypical mitoses and reduced collagen production. Presence of immature blood vessels (sarcomatous vessels lacking endothelial cells) favors the bloodstream metastasizing.

Automobile tires are described by an alphanumeric code which is generally molded into the side-wall of the tire. This code specifies the dimensions of the tire and some of its key limitations such as load bearing ability and maximum speed.

The code has grown in complexity over the years as is evident from the mix of metric and imperial units and ad-hoc extensions to lettering and numbering schemes. New automotive tires frequently have ratings for traction, treadwear, and temperature resistance (collectively known as The Uniform Tire Quality Grade (UTQG) ratings).

The meaning of tire codes

Tire identification diagram
Tire identification diagram, light truck specific featuresThe tire code consists of a string of letters and numbers, as follows:

An optional letter (or letters) indicating the intended use or vehicle class for the tire
'P' - Passenger
'LT' - Light Truck
'ST' - Special Trailer
'T' - Temporary
The width of the tire - in millimeters, from sidewall edge to sidewall edge.
A slash character ('/').
The ratio of the sidewall height to the total width of the tire - as a percentage. If this is missing, it is assumed to be 82%. If the number is larger than 200, then this is the diameter of the entire tire in millimeters.
Construction of the fabric of the tire
'B' - bias belt
'D' - diagonal
'R' - radial
Diameter of the rim that this tire is designed to fit - in inches.
Load index.
Speed rating - one or perhaps two letters (see table below).
Additional marks.
[edit]
Speed rating codes
The code is made up of one or two letters describing the maximum safe speed for the tire.

Tire speed rating codes Code MPH km/h
N 93 150
Q 99 160
R 105 170
S 112 180
T 118 190
U 124 200
H 130 210
V 149 240
W 167 270
Y 186 300
ZR Over 149 Over 240

The code "ZR" means a speed limit for the tire of more than 240 km/h. In this case there is often an additional code, example: 225/45 ZR 17 Y.

Additional marks
There are numerous other markings on a typical tire, these may include:

M&S: On winter tires, at the end of the above mentioned codes the following abbreviation can be found: M&S for Mud and Snow. On spike tires there is an additional E after the S.
E4 - Tire approved according ECE-regulations, (the number indicates the country of approval).
030908 - Approval number of the tire
DOT-Number: Production date; DOT = Department of Transportation; example: DOT 3204 = 32nd week in 2004; before 2000 there was a 3 number code with triangle-symbol used, Example: 122◄ = 12th week of 1992; prior this the following code was used: 065 = 6th week of 1985
TL - Tubeless
TT - Tubetype, tire with an inner-tube
Made in - Country of production
C (commercial) - Tires for light trucks (Example: 185 R14 C)
B - Bias Belted tires for motorcycles (Example: 150/70 B 17 69 H)=diagonal construction with belt added under the tread
SFI - abbr. for "side facing inwards" = inside of asymmetrically tires
SFO - abbr. for "side facing outwards" = outside of asymmetrically tires
TWI - Tire wear index, an indicator in the main tire profile which shows when the tire is worn down and needs to be replaced
XL (extra load): Tire for heavy loads
rf - Reinforced tires
Arrows - Some tread designs are designed to perform better when driven in a specific direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise). Such tires will have an arrow showing which way the tire should rotate when the vehicle is moving forwards. It is important not to put a 'clockwise' tire on the left hand side of the car or a 'counter-clockwise' tire on the right side.

Tire geometry
When referring to the purely geometrical data, a shortened form of the full notation is used. To take a common example, 195/55R16 would mean that the width of the tire is 195 mm at the widest point, the height of the side-wall of the tire is 55% of the width (107 mm in this example) and that the tire fits 16 inch diameter wheels.

Less commonly used in the USA and Europe (but often in Japan for example) is a notation that indicates the full tire diameter instead of the side-wall height. To take the same example, a 16 inch wheel would have a diameter of 406 mm. Adding twice the tire height (2x107 mm) makes a total 620 mm tire diameter. Hence, a 195/55R16 tire might alternatively be labelled 195/620R16.

Whilst this is theoretically ambiguous, in practice these two notations may easily be distinguished because the height of the side-wall of an automotive tire is typically much less than the width. Hence when the height is expressed a percentage of the width, it is almost always less than 100% (and certainly less than 200%). Conversely, vehicle tire diameters are always larger than 200 mm. Therefore, if the second number is more than 200, then it is almost certain the Japanese notation is being used - if it's less than 200 then the US/European notation is being used.

Example
The tires on a MINI Cooper might be labelled:

P195/55R16 85H

'P' these tires are for a passenger vehicle.
195 - the width of the tire is 195 mm at the widest point.
55 - indicates that the height of the side-wall of the tire is 55% of the width - 107 mm.
R - this is a radial tire.
16 - this tire fits 16 inch diameter wheels.
85 - the load index, a maximum of 515 kg per wheel in this case.
H - the speed index, this means the maximum permitted speed, here 210 km/h (130 mph).

Contravene is an anarcho-punk/metal band from Phoenix, Arizona that was formed in the fall of 1999. Contravene is known for their anti-racist, anti-homophobic, pro-animal rights lyrics.

Members
Ben (guitar, vocals)
Nick (drums)
Eric (bass, vocals)
Shelly (vocals)
[edit]
Former members
Phil (guitar)
Chad (guitar)

Discography
Forever In Struggle (demo tape, self-released, 1999)
Contravene s/t (7", self-released, 2000)
Contravene/Svart Aggression split (7", Catchphraze Records, 2000)
Contravene (CD, Catchphraze Records, 2002)
A Call to Action (LP/CD, Tribal War Records, 2002)
Prison Sells (7", Catchphraze Records, 2003)

Bellway plc is a major British residential property developer. It was founded in 1946 by John T. Bell (1878 - 1965) and his sons John and Russell, and is based on Newcastle upon Tyne. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

Family history
Born in Walker, Northumberland, John Thomas Bell was the son of William and Mary Jane Bell (nee Craig). His father was born into Norfolk farming stock and was one of thousands who, during the agricultural slump of the 1870s, migrated from the countryside towards Britain's industrial heartlands in search of alternative work. He first settled in and around Newcastle and worked as a quarryman. It was here that he met his wife, the daughter of a Scottish-born quarryman. John was the eldest child. He was followed by thirteen others.

By the turn of the century John, aged twenty two, was living with his family in North Seaton, one of a series of mining villages on the vast south-east Northumberland coalfield - although he and his father, as well as two of his brothers, were there quarrying stone. However 'JT' was evidently a driven man, with the ambition and business acumen to attempt an escape from the hardship around him. Family lore suggests that his first 'business' was trade of a very small kind - going door to door with a barrow. This may have amounted to nothing, but at some point before his mother's death during the Great War years he set about investigating a dormant inheritance which had originally been left to his maternal grandmother, Mary Richley. Her sister had emigrated to America but died shortly afterwards in 1859, leaving three children effectively orphaned. It appears that they all involved with the Church of the Latter Day Saints. The only girl, Caroline Ann, was groomed as the second wife of a William Randolph Teeples, a Mormon pioneer who co-founded the town of Pima, Arizona. It is from source that the inheritance is thought to have derived.

Having successfully tracked down and claimed the inheritance 'JT', with the blessing of his mother (to whom the money technically belonged), plowed it into his first house conversion. It was evidently a success, and it was on the back of this that the small local building company of 'John T Bell' emerged.

In 1946 'JT' was joined by his sons John (1918-1974)and Russell. The trio managed to successfully tap into the huge demand for private housing that followed the Second World War (Cramlington New Town, build in partnership with William Leech in the early 1960s, was a massive project of this type), and in the decade that followed a judicious land buying policy and a knack for building what people wanted at affordable prices led the enterprise to greater and greater success.

The 1980s signalled a new dawn for Bellway. Already a huge success in the North East it developed into a nationwide organisation, and although it suffered some from some slumps, it was the beginning of a period of uninterrupted and prodiguous growth for the company which continues to this day.

Present day
In 2004 Bellway celebrated the sale of its 100,000 home, and in the year ended 31 July 2005 made profits before tax of £218.2 million on a turnover of £1.178 billion, and is amongst the top 250 companies on the UK stock market. It currently employs 2,278 people in over a dozen regional divisions.

Family involvement with the company, both as directors, chairmen and shareholders, ended after the premature deaths of Kenneth Bell and his son Ashley in 1999.

The term set-top box (STB) describes a device that connects to a television and some external source of signal, and turns the signal into content then displayed on the screen. The signal source might be an ethernet cable, (see triple play), a satellite dish, a coaxial cable (see cable television), a telephone line (including DSL connections), or even an ordinary VHF or UHF antenna. Content, in this context, could mean any or all of video, audio, Internet webpages, interactive games, or other possibilities. A set-top box does not necessarily contain a tuner of its own. A box connected to a television (or VCR) set's SCART connector is fed with the baseband television signal from the set's tuner, and can ask the television to display the returned processed signal instead. This feature is used for decoding Pay TV in Europe, and in the past was used for decoding teletext, before decoders became built-in. The outgoing signal can be of the same nature as the incoming signal, or RGB component video, or even an "insert" over the original signal, thanks to the "fast switching" feature of SCART. In case of Pay TV, this solution avoids the hassles associated with having a second remote control.

In the United Kingdom, digital set-top boxes (often referred to as digiboxes, after Sky Digital's trademark for their unit) are usually for digital terrestrial television through services such as Freeview, a service operated by the Freeview Consortium, or through digital satellite with BSkyB and also with digital cable. They are used to access television as well as audio and interactive services through the "Red Button" promoted by broadcasters such as the BBC with BBCi or Sky with Sky Active.

Before cable-ready TV sets, a set-top box was used to receive analog cable TV channels and convert them to one that could be seen on a regular TV (channel 3 or 4 in North America, or channel 6 or 7 in the United Kingdom)

A digital set-top box is needed for receiving digital TV broadcasts, because the vast majority of TV sets do not yet have such a tuner. In the case of direct broadcast satellite (mini-dish) systems such as SES Astra, Dish Network, or DirecTV, the set-top box is an integrated receiver/decoder (IRD).

In IPTV networks, the set-top box is a small computer providing two-way communications on an IP network, and decoding the video streaming media.

Judith Clare Thompson (born September 20, 1954) is a prominent Canadian playwright who lives in Toronto, Ontario. The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper, once declared that "...in this country, a playwright as good as Judith Thompson is a miracle." She has twice been awarded the Governor General's Award for drama, and is the recipient of many other awards.

Early years
Thompson was born in Montreal, Quebec, the daughter of W. R. Thompson, a geneticist and the head of the Department of Psychology at Queen's University, and Mary, who taught in the Queens Drama Department for many years. Thompson was raised in Kingston, Ontario, and studied drama at Queen's and then studied acting at the National Theatre School of Canada (NTS) in Montreal. Thompson worked as an actor for a year, but then gave it up to pursue writing.

Career as a playwright
While in a mask class at NTS, Thompson had developed the character Therese, a mildly mentally-handicapped Aboriginal woman based on people she had met while working as an assistant social worker during the summers in Kingston. This character was to provide the core of Thompson's first play The Crackwalker (1980), which focuses on Kingston's sub-proletariat class. Thompson's second play, White Biting Dog (1984), was an expressionistic and poetic black comedy about an eccentric and wildly self-destructive family. I Am Yours (1987), while containing similarly expressionistic elements, attaches these to the fears and fantasies of the central characters, to create an even more powerfully compelling theatrical experience.

Lion in the Streets (1990), which is perhaps her strongest play, uses a structure similar to Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde to follow violent and cruel impulses from one character to another, a route which the ghost of a young murdered girl, Isobel, uses to track down her killer. A penultimate scene which Thompson cut after the first workshop production of the play, was restored for the 1999 Theatre Kingston production, and Thompson has since then included the scene in published editions of the play as one of two alternative versions. Productions of the play have been held in a wide variety of North American locations, including: Toronto, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Portland and Vancouver. Reviews range from laudatory (many)[1][2] to highly critical (a few).[3] There seems to be no middle ground with this play.

Sled (1997), which began life as a seven-hour play called The Last Things, but was later cut down to three hours, attempts again to pursue human violence back to its sources. Thompson first wrote Perfect Pie as a short monologue for television in 1993, but in 2000 expanded the story into full-length play about two teenaged girls whose lives diverge dramatically after a violent incident. In 2002, Perfect Pie was also made into a feature film of that name, which, while satisfying in itself, offered a more conventional version of the uncanny story told in Thompson's play. Habitat, which premiered in 2001 at CanStage, the major regional theatre in Toronto, shows how a middle-class community is torn apart into factions when a group home for troubled youth is established on a quiet residential street. Capture Me, which premiered in early 2004 at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, is centred on a kindergarten teacher who, while searching for her birth mother, is stalked by her violent ex-husband.

In 1991, she adapted and directed Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler for the Shaw Festival. A remount of Thompson's adaptation appeared at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in 2005. Her translation of Serge Boucher's Motel Hélène appeared at the Tarragon Theatre in 2001.

Thompson's work embraces visceral and subconscious elements of human experience which are seldom seen on stage. While the ambitiousness of her scope can occasionally result in plays which seem somewhat unwieldy in their form, she has an astonishing gift for providing theatrical experiences which incisively reach the deepest recesses of her audience's imaginations.

She is currently a professor at the University of Guelph, where she teaches acting and playwriting courses.

Catulle Mendès (22 May 1841 8 February 1909) was a French poet and man of letters.

Of Jewish extraction, he was born at Bordeaux. He early established himself in Paris, attaining speedy notoriety by the publication in the Revue fantaisiste (1861) of his Roman d'une nuit, for which he was condemned to a month's imprisonment and a fine of 500 francs. He was allied with the Parnassians from the beginning of the movement, and displayed extraordinary metrical skill in his first volume of poems, Philoméla (1863). In later volumes, his critics have noted that the elegant verse is distinguished rather by dexterous imitation of different writers than by any marked originality. The versatility and fecundity of Mendes' talent is shown in a series of his critical and dramatic writings, including several libretti, and of novels and short stories. His short stories continue the French tradition of the licentious conte.

In 1866 he married Judith Gautier, the younger daughter of the poet Théophile Gautier. They later separated. On the 8th of February 1909, early in the morning, his dead body was discovered in the railway tunnel of Saint Germain. He had left Paris by the midnight train on the 7th, and it is supposed that, thinking he had arrived at the station, he had opened the door of his compartment while still in the tunnel.

Manufacturing Process Management (MPM) is a collection of technology and methods used in the manufacture of products. It incorporates such technologies as computer-aided production engineering (CAPE), CAPP (production planning), computer-aided quality assurance (CAQ), the utilization of CAD and AEC tools for factory layout and digital mockup (DMU) and simulation for assembly analysis. As the digital manufacturing part of the PLM process it is the bridge from product design to production planning and on to resource and inventory scheduling. As CAD defines what is to be made; and ERP/MRP defines when it is to be made; MPM defines how it will be made.

A cornerstone of MPM is the central repository for manufacturing data management (MDM) similar to PDM for design data. MPM takes the product data eBOM (engineering Bill of Material) to create the process oriented mBOM (manufacturing) along with a bill of process (BOP). This together with the management of resources such as tools, machines and work centers forms the so called 3PR data (product process plant resources).

The integration of all these tools and activities aids in the exploration of alternative production line scenarios; making assembly lines more efficient with the aim of reduced lead time to product launch, shorter product times and reduced work in progress (WIP) inventories as well as allowing rapid response to product or product changes.

The 6R is a 6-speed automatic transmission for longitudinal engine placement in rear wheel drive vehicles. It is a Ford Motor Company design and is produced at Ford's Livonia Transmission plant in Livonia, Michigan. The 6R debuted in the 2006 model year Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer.

Wendy Wasserstein
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Wendy Wasserstein (October 18, 1950 January 30, 2006) was an award-winning American playwright and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. She was the recipient of the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Wasserstein was born in Brooklyn, New York to Morris Wasserstein, a wealthy textile executive, and his wife, Lola Schliefer, an amateur dancer who moved to the United States from Poland when her father was accused of being a spy. Wasserstein was one of four children, including brother Bruce Wasserstein. Her maternal grandfather was Simon Schliefer, a prominent Polish Jewish playwright who moved to Paterson, New Jersey and became a Hebrew school principal.

Wasserstein earned a B.A. in history from Mount Holyoke College in 1971, an M.A. in creative writing from City College of New York, and an M.F.A. in 1976 from the Yale School of Drama, where her classmates included the future playwright Christopher Durang. In 1990 she received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Mount Holyoke College and in 2002 Wasserstein received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Bates College.

In computer architecture, 24-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are at most 24 bits (3 octets) wide. Also, 24-bit CPU and ALU architectures are those that are based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size.

The IBM System/360, announced in 1964, was an extremely popular computer system with 24-bit addressing and 32-bit general registers and arithmetic. Two decades later another popular system, IBM PC/AT, started shipping with its Intel 80286 processor, also with 24-bit addressing, but with 16-bit general registers and arithmetic.

The five cities and five boroughs of the Republic of Ireland are defined by the Local Government Act 2001 (S.I. 591 of 2001): the cities were previously referred to as "county boroughs" and the boroughs were previously referred to as "municipal boroughs".

The same Act gave the status of towns to the former "urban districts", in addition to the twenty-six towns designated under the Towns Improvement Act (repealed). The following "traditional towns" had lost their status under Section 62 of the Local Government Act, 1994 (S.I. 171 of 1994): Callan, Fethard, Newcastle West, Rathkeale, Roscommon and Tullow. Hence, there are, as of 2002, seventy-five towns in the Republic of Ireland.

This page lists the cities, boroughs and towns of the Republic of Ireland with their population at the time of the 2002 census. The first figure for the population is that within the legally defined boundaries of the city, borough or town. The second is the population within the "urban area", as defined by the Central Statistics Office: the continuation of the population cluster outside the legally defined boundary where no occupied dwelling is more than 200 metres from the nearest occupied dwelling. Where no second population figure is given, the town does not extend significantly beyond its legally defined boundaries.

The spelling of town names and the language in which the name is given follow the usage of the Central Statistics Office in its report on the 2002 census: alternative spellings are in use elsewhere for certain town names. Older names for towns have been noted where this is deemed useful in the census report.

The vox humana (Latin for "human voice") is a stop on the pipe organ so-named because of its supposed resemblance to the human voice.

There are two types:

A reed pipe with a nasal tone that was commonly used with a tremulant. The Vox Humana is one of the oldest organ stops, dating back at least as far as the late 1500's. It is a reed stop of the Regal class and has been made in a wide variety of forms. It is most often constructed with cylindrical resonators, usually 1/4 or 1/8 length, and usually partially or fully capped.
An important Italian stop of the 16th century onwards; it had Principal-scaled pipes in the treble mistuned with the Principale 8' and thus producing an undulating effect when the two stops were used together, called "voce umana" in Italian or Piffaro).

The church of St. Sebastian (Italian: San Sebastiano) is a Baroque church in Palazzolo Acreide, Sicily.

The original church of San Sebastiano was built in the 15th century, in the same site of the current edifice, next to a smaller church dedicate to St. Roch. It was enalrged in the 16th and 17th centuries but, like most of the edifices of Palazzolo, was destroyed in 1693 by a huge earthquake.

In the early 18th century a new edifice was built, with a nave and two aisles. The monumental façade was begun in 1723, with design by the Syracuse sculptor Mario Diamanti: it was completed, along with the campanile, in 1768.

The church is noteworthu for its fine Baroque decorations, including a wide usage of stuccoes in the interior. The vault of the central nave has three large 19th century frescoes, while the altars are in polychrome marbles, with altarpieces or statues portraying saints. The central nave ends with an apse including the St. Crucifix Chapel and a majestic marble high altar, with a 17th century crucifix.

Other artworks include the titular saint's statue (by an unknown artist, 1663), as statue of the Madonna, the organ (1728-29) and a painting of St. Marguerite by Olivio Sozzi (1758)

[size=3]The House of Orange-Nassau (in Dutch: Van Oranje-Nassau), a branch of the House of Nassau, has played a central role in the political life of the Netherlands since William I of Orange (also known as "William the Silent" and "Father of the Fatherland") organised the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule, which after the Eighty Years' War led to an independent Dutch state.

Several members of the house served during this war and after as governor or stadtholder (Dutch stadhouder). However, in 1815, after a long period as a republic, the Netherlands became a monarchy under the House of Orange-Nassau.

The dynasty was established as a result of the marriage between Hendrik III of Nassau-Breda from Germany and Claudia of Châlon-Orange from French Burgundy. Their son René of Châlon first adopted the new family name "Orange-Nassau". William I was his nephew and successor.

In the late 17th century, the family also supplied a British monarch, King William III who is credited with causing the Glorious Revolution. Orangemen around the world still celebrate his endeavors every year in a colourful, although sometimes controversial, Orange Order folk festival commonly called "The Twelfth". Some members of the Orange Order also belong to various outlawed loyalist paramilitary/terrorist groups in Northern Ireland.

Early history: the House of Nassau
The first person to be called count of Nassau was Henry I, who lived in the first half of the 13th century. His sons Walram and Otto split the Nassau possessions. The descendants of Walram became known as the Walram Line, which became important in the Nassau county. The descendants of Otto became known as the Otton Line, which inherited parts of the Nassau county, France and the Netherlands.

The House of Orange-Nassau stem from the Otton Line. The second person was Engelbert I, who offered his services to the Duke of Burgundy, married a Dutch noblewoman and inherited lands in the Netherlands, with the barony of Breda as the core of the Dutch possessions.

The importance of the Nassaus grew throughout the 15th and 16th century. Hendrik III of Nassau-Breda was appointed stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland by Charles of Ghent in the beginning of the 16th century. Henry was succeeded by René of Châlon-Orange in 1538, who was, as his full name stated, Prince of Orange. When René died prematurely on the battlefield in 1544 his possessions passed to his nephew, William I of Orange. From then on the family members called themselves "Orange-Nassau."

William of Orange was befriended by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and his son Philip.

The Dutch rebellion
Although Charles V resisted the Reformation, he ruled the Dutch territories wisely with moderation and regard for local customs, and he did not persecute his Protestant subjects on a large scale. Unfortunately, his son Philip II inherited his antipathy for the Protestants but not his moderation. Under the reign of Philip, a true persecution of Protestants was initiated and taxes were raised to an outrageous level. Discontent arose and William of Orange (with his vague Lutheran childhood) stood up for the Protestant (mainly Calvinist) inhabitants of the Netherlands. Things went badly after the Eighty Years' War started in 1568, but luck turned in his advantage when Protestant rebels attacking from the North Sea captured Brielle, a coastal town in present-day South Holland in 1572. Many cities in Holland began to support William. During the 1570s he had to defend his core territories in Holland several times, but in the 1580s the inland cities in Holland were secure. William of Orange was considered a threat to Spanish rule in the area and was assassinated in 1584 by a hired killer sent by Philip.

William was succeeded by his second son Maurits, a Protestant who proved an excellent military commander. His abilities as a commander and the lack of strong leadership in Spain after the death of Philip II (1598) gave Maurits excellent opportunities to conquer large parts of the present-day Dutch territory.

Maurits was created stadtholder (military commander) of the Dutch Republic in 1585. In the early years of the 17th century there arose quarrels between stadtholder and oligarchist regents a group of powerful merchants led by Johan van Oldebarnevelt because Maurits wanted more powers in the Republic. Maurits won this power struggle by arranging the judicial murder of Oldebarnevelt.

Expansion of dynastic power
Maurits died unmarried in 1625 and left no legitimate children. He was succeeded by his half-brother Frederick Henry (Dutch: Frederik Hendrik), youngest son of William I. Maurits urged his successor on his deathbed to marry as soon as possible. A few weeks after Maurits's death he married Amalia van Solms-Braunfels. Frederick Henry and Amalia had a son and several daughters. These daughters were married to important houses such as the house of Hohenzollern, but also to the Frisian Nassaus, who were stadtholders in Friesland. His only son William wedded Mary, the eldest daughter of Charles I of England. These dynastic moves were the work of Amalia.

Exile and resurgence
Frederick Henry died in 1647 and his son succeeded him. As the Treaty of Munster was about to be signed, thereby ending the Eighty Years War, William tried to extend his powers beyond the military to make his function valuable at peace, at the great distress of the regents. When the regents of the city of Amsterdam refused some mayors he appointed, he besieged Amsterdam. The siege provoked the wrath of the regents and, unfortunately, William died of smallpox on November 6, 1650, leaving only a posthumous son, William (*November 14, 1650). As there was no Prince of Orange at the death of William II, the regents used the opportunity to let the stadtholdership vacant. The newborn prince was exiled to a disgraceful life. A quarrel about the education of the young prince arose between his mother and his grandmother Amalia (who outlived her husband for 28 years). Amalia wanted an education which was pointed at the resurgence of the House of Orange to power, but Mary wanted a pure English education. The Estates of Holland meddled in the education and made William a "child of state" educated by the state. The doctrine used in this education was keeping William from rule. William became indeed very docile to the regents and the Estates.

The Dutch Republic was attacked by France and England in 1672. The military function of stadtholder was no longer superfluous and William was restored, and became stadtholder as William III. William successfully repelled the invasion and seized power. He became more powerful than his predecessors during the Eighty Years War. In 1677 William married Mary Stuart, daughter to future king James II. In 1688 William embarked on a mission to depose his Catholic father-in-law from the English throne. He and his wife were crowned King and Queen of England on April 11, 1689. With the accession to the English throne he became the most powerful sovereign on Earth, the only one to defeat the Sun King. Many members of the House of Orange were devoted admirers of the King-Stadtholder afterwards. He died childless after a riding accident on March 8, 1702, leaving the House of Orange extinct and England to Anne.

The second stadtholderless era
The regents found that they had suffered under the powerful leadership of William III and declared the stadtholdership vacant for the second time. The main reason was a quarrel about the title Prince of Orange between John William Friso of the Frisian Nassaus, appointed heir in William III's will, and the King of Prussia. The King of Prussia, Friedrich I was the rightful heir by blood, grandson to Frederick Henry in the maternal line and appointed successor in the will of Frederick Henry in the case the House would die out. The solution was that both claimants were allowed to bear the title. The problem of the lands solved itself as the principality of Orange was conquered by Louis XIV in 1713. John William Friso drowned in 1711 in the Hollands Diep near Moerdijk and left a posthumous son William IV. He was proclaimed stadtholder of Gelderland, Overijssel, Drenthe and Utrecht in 1722. When the French invaded in 1747 William was restored as stadtholder of the whole Dutch Republic, hereditary in both male and female line.

The end of the republic
William died in 1751, leaving his three years old son Willem V as stadtholder. As Willem V was still a minor, the regents ruled for him. Unfortunately, the regents once again deliberately weakened the character of the future ruler, educating him to be indecisive. It would pursue Willem during his whole life. His marriage to Wilhelmina of Prussia relieved this flaw to some degree. Willem's inability to rule properly was a small factor in the collapse of the Dutch Republic, the larger issue being the corrupt regents. In 1787 he survived a coup from Patriots (democratic revolutionaries) after Prussia intervened. When the French invaded in 1795 he had to flee, and was never to return.

After 1795 the House of Orange-Nassau faced a difficult period, surviving in exile at other European courts, especially those of Prussia and England. Willem V died in 1806.

The monarchy (1815)

A new spirit: the United Kingdom of the Netherlands
When the French Empire collapsed in 1813, Willem Frederik, son of William V, returned to the Netherlands to become Prince Sovereign William I. This move was strongly supported by the United Kingdom, which sought ways to strengthen the Netherlands and deny future French aggressors easy access to the Low Countries' Channel ports. In 1815 Belgium and Luxembourg were added to his realm and William ruled over the then United Kingdom of the Netherlands, trying to establish one common culture, provoking the resistance in the southern parts of his new realm. Due to this expansion of territory the Principality of the Netherlands became a Kingdom on 15 March 1815. The Prince of Orange held rights to Napoleon-grabbed Nassauer lands (Dillenburg, Dietz, Beilstein, Hadamar, Siegen) in Central Germany, on the other hand the King of Prussia had beginning from 1813 managed to establish his rule in duchy of Luxembourg which he regarded as his inheritance from Anne, Duchess of Luxembourg who had died over three centuries earlier, her ancestral duchy having been annexed by Duke of Burgundy. The brothers-in-law and first cousins, Orange and Prussia, made an exchange, sealed by the congress of Vienna: Prussia received the Nassauer lands of Prince of Orange, and he received Luxembourg, now elevated to a Grand Duchy. Both got what was geographically nearer to their center of power.

In 1830 Belgium declared its independence and William fought a disastrous war until 1839 when he was forced to settle for peace. With his realm halved, he decided to abdicate in 1840. Royal power was curbed during the reign of his son William II in a constitution ordered by the King to prevent the Revolution of 1848 from spreading to his country.

William III and the threat of extinction
William II died in 1849. He was succeeded by his son, King William III, a conservative, even reactionary man. William III was sharply opposed to the 1848 constitution and constantly tried to form his own royal governments. In 1868, he tried to sell Luxembourg to France, causing a quarrel between Prussia and France.

William III had an unhappy marriage with Sophie von Württemberg and his heirs died young, which began to raise the possibility of the extinction of the House of Orange-Nassau. After the death of Sophie in 1877, William married Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont in 1879. A year later, Queen Emma gave birth to a daughter and heiress, Wilhelmina. Upon William's death in 1890, the House of Orange became extinct in the male line.

As females weren't allowed to hold power in Luxembourg due to the Salic law, the Grand Duchy passed to the House of Nassau-Weilburg, a collateral line. The problem of total extinction remained until 1909, when Juliana was born. The royal house remained small until the end of the 1930s and the early 1940s, when Juliana's four children were born.

A modern monarchy
Wilhelmina ruled the Netherlands for fifty years, from 1898 to 1948. She was a symbol of the Dutch resistance during the Second World War. The moral authority of the monarchy was restored because of her rule. After fifty years, she decided to abdicate in favour of Juliana. Juliana made the monarchy less aloof and under her rule the monarchy became known as the "cycling monarchy" as the members of the royal family cycled often through the countryside. A marital policy quarrel occurred in 1966 when future queen Beatrix wanted to marry Claus von Amsberg, a German diplomat. A marriage of a royal with a German was controversial that may have been exacerbated by von Amsberg's former membership in the Hitler Youth and later service in the Wehrmacht. Permission from the government was granted and Beatrix married him. Claus became the most popular member of the royal family; he died in 2002. On April 30th 1980 Juliana abdicated in favor of her daughter Beatrix. Beatrix' government has proven to be more professional and more aloof than Juliana's. At present, the monarchy is popular with a large part of the population. The Crown Prince Willem-Alexander is married to Máxima, they have two young daughters Catharina-Amalia and Alexia.

Juliana died on the 20 March 2004 and Prince Bernhard died on the 1 December 2004.

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Georg (Goggi) Hólm (born April 6, 1976) is a bass guitarist for the Icelandic band Sigur Rós. Hólm is the most prominent member of Sigur Rós in the English press, as he does significantly more press than the other members due to his being the most fluent English speaker in the band.