unaqemycurik

Monday, April 4, 2011

Mosaic of Municipal house

Mosaic of Obecn dm (Municipal house), Praha (Prague), Czech Republic..

Obecn dm was built in Art Nouveau style in the first decade of the 20th century. It is a representative building and a place for social and cultural events.
There's a lot of interesting information on the website of Obecn dm (in English).

The Historic Centre of Prague in inscribed in the World Heritage List of the UNESCO.

Citation from whc.unesco.org/en/list/616
-----------------------------------------------------------
Built between the 11th and 18th centuries, the Old Town, the Lesser Town and the New Town speak of the great architectural and cultural influence enjoyed by this city since the Middle Ages. The many magnificent monuments, such as Hradcani Castle, St Vitus Cathedral, Charles Bridge and numerous churches and palaces, built mostly in the 14th century under the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV.

Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe in terms of its setting on both banks of the Vltava River, its townscape of burger houses and palaces punctuated by towers, and its individual buildings.

The Historic Centre represents a supreme manifestation of Medieval urbanism (the New Town of Emperor Charles IV built as the New Jerusalem). The Prague architectural works of the Gothic Period (14th and 15th centuries), of the High Baroque of the 1st half of the 18th century and of the rising modernism after the year 1900, influenced the development of Central Europe, perhaps even all European architecture. Prague represents one of the most prominent world centres of creative life in the field of urbanism and architecture across generations, human mentality and beliefs.

Prague belongs to the group of historic cities which have preserved the structure of their development until the present times. Within the core of Prague, successive stages of growth and changes have respected the original grand-scale urban structure of the Early Middle Ages. This structure was essentially and greatly enlarged with urban activities in the High Gothic period with more additions during the High Baroque period and in the 19th century. It has been saved from any large-scale urban renewal or massive demolitions and thus preserves its overall configuration, pattern and spatial composition.

In the course of the 1100 years of its existence, Prague’s development can be documented in the architectural expression of many historical periods and their styles. The city is rich in outstanding monuments from all periods of its history. Of particular importance are Prague Castle, the Cathedral of St Vitus, Hradany Square in front of the Castle, the Valdgtejn Palace on the left bank of the river, the Gothic Charles Bridge, the Romanesque Rotunda of the Holy Rood, the Gothic arcaded houses round the Old Town Square, the High Gothic Minorite Church of St James in the Stark Msto, the late 19th century buildings and town plan of the Nave Msto.

As early as the Middle Ages, Prague became one of the leading cultural centres of Christian Europe. The Prague University, founded in 1348, is one of the earliest in Europe. The milieu of the University in the last quarter of the 14th century and the first years of the 15th century contributed among other things to the formation of ideas of the Hussite Movement which represented in fact the first steps of the European Reformation. As a metropolis of culture, Prague is connected with prominent names in art, science and politics, such as Charles IV, Petr Parl, Jan Hus, Johannes Kepler, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Kafka, Antonn Dvok, Albert Einstein, Edvard Bene (co-founder of the League of Nations) and Vclav Havel.
-------------------------------------------------------
End of citation

Tags

digital

photo

foto

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7

panasonic

2009

Czech Republic

Czechia

Tschechische Republik

Tschechien

esk republika

Ceska republika

esko

Cesko

Prag

Prague

Praha

UNESCO

UNESCO World Heritage Site

WHS

World Heritage Site

World Heritage

UNESCO Welterbe

Welterbe

UNESCO World Heritage

UNESCO WHS

city

Stadt

town

capital

Hauptstadt

Europa

Europe

Obecn dm

Obecni dum

municipal house

Gemeindehaus

Reprsentationshaus

Haus

house

building

Gebude

Kuppel

cupola

dome

arch

Bogen

Jugendstil

art nouveau

mosaic

Mosaik

art

Kunst

architecture

Wappen

coat of arms

holy roman emperor, st vitus cathedral, supreme manifestation, human mentality, prague czech republic, magnificent monuments, world heritage list, emperor charles, early middle ages, european architecture, new jerusalem, charles bridge, gothic period, cities in europe, architectural works, vltava river, castle st, art nouveau style, urban structure, present times

Flickr.com

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Knives out for Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho after the end of his nine-year unbeaten home league record

Spurs could be forgiven for feeling they are intruding on a wake when they turn up in the royal half of Madrid on Monday.

Jose Mourinho - Knives out for Jose Mourinho after the end of his remarkable nine-year unbeaten home record

Not amused: Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho feels the pain of defeat Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Ian Chadband

By Ian Chadband, Chief Sports Correspondent in Madrid 11:00PM BST 03 Apr 2011

Ian's Twitter

Comments

For as Real Madrid’s whitest cheerleading organ, Marca, pronounced like some gloomy official proclamation on its front page “Adios Liga. Adios record”, the mounting feeling here was that it may yet end up being a mere prelude to “Adios Jose”.

At a club where they have always been happy to turn the most minor drama into a crisis, you could swear you could hear the sound of knives being sharpened, perhaps ready to be plunged into Jose Mourinho’s aura like never before following both the end of the Special One’s nine-year, 150-game unbeaten league home run and, surely, of his interest in claiming his seventh national league title in eight years.

Suddenly, Real’s six, maybe seven, games in April loom as the greatest examination yet of a gilded career of practically uninterrupted success. All the talk here has been of Mourinho’s future, of his hints of returning to England and of him winning power battles with sporting director Jorge Valdano, but if he succumbs in these huge games, including possibly four against Barcelona in 15 days, his future will be written for him regardless.

His studied air of insouciance after the 1-0 defeat to Sporting Gijón here could not hide his dismay, doubtless cemented in private later by watching Barcelona’s giddy lads celebrating the win at Villarreal which puts them eight points clear and practically certain to bag a third straight title.

Mourinho talked about his side being unlucky but, inside, must have been as alarmed as those Bernabéu regulars who felt this weakened side bereft of creative juices and a cutting edge - the ingredients known primarily as Cristiano Ronaldo - had just produced their worst performance of the season.

It was so poor that even if bringing back Ronaldo with his thigh problem on Tuesday is a gamble, it actually looks like a must. “The decision of risking it belongs only to him and to me. I may risk it,” said Mourinho.

Bank on it; it is an SOS to Ronaldo which may spell Save Our Season.

Mourinho did accept his fate with some dignity as he went to the visitors’ dressing room to offer congratulations and even saluted Gijon’s coach, Manuel Preciado, who earlier in the season, in a verbal bust up, had dismissed Mourinho as a canalla. The best translation of that, apparently, is 'scumbag’ and a reminder of how there will be many here now revelling in Mourinho’s discomfort.

And how Spurs must now grasp the chance to add to it. Madrid tomorrow will be bolstered by the return of Xabi Alonso, suspended on Saturday, and Gonzalo Higuain, who feels sharper after playing his first half an hour in four months since his back surgery, but the side will not look too dissimilar to that which against Gijón laboured miserably up front and were absent-minded at the back. Alvaro Arbeloa, for one, had a woeful night.

All of which can only have encouraged Spurs, who, even while having their own goalless streak to be concerned about, were talking up their prospects of an upset even before news of Gijon’s late smash and grab.

“We’ve got a tough, tough task, but we’ve proved this year against top teams like Inter and AC Milan that we’ve been able to go to these places and get results. Hopefully we can do the same in Madrid,” Peter Crouch had said after the goalless draw with Wigan.

Being reminded of how Mourinho’s old Chelsea favourite, Ricardo Carvalho, once suggested Crouch was easy to play against was a perfect red rag. “We’ll see about that,” responded the striker.

“As for Mourinho, he’s top class. His results from Porto to Chelsea to Inter Milan and now Real. We all have a great deal of respect for him. So we go there with respect but also to get a result.”

A final word of respect, too, for that record. To go 150 home league games with various clubs without a single loss should be recalled as one of football’s most unfathomable achievements, perhaps an unrepeatable feat.

The man himself always sniffed that “it means nothing to me”, that only winning trophies continues to concern him. Maybe, but another protective layer of his aura was stripped here, enough for Spurs to be persuaded the Great Wall of Mourinho may just have developed a major structural fault.

jorge valdano, jose mourinho, getty images, uninterrupted success, league home, rsquo, real madrid, straight title, insouciance, gij, seven games, villarreal, dismay, loom, regulars, lads, cheerleading, bst, prelude, knives

Telegraph.feedsportal.com

Museo Salvador Dali

Figueres, Spain

Tags

Europe

Figueres

Salvador Dali

Spain
Flickr.com

Paulson tops list of top-earning hedgies

Hedge funds came roaring back last year, according to The Rich List, a survey published by Absolute Return+Alpha.com.

In its 10th annual poll, the Web site says the top 25 hedge funders netted just over $22 billion for the year.

John Paulson took the gold -- literally -- earning $4.9 billion with his bet on the precious metal. Paulson regained the crown after being bested by David Tepper in 2009.

Tepper dropped out of the "money" in 2010 to fourth place. The Appaloosa Management chief took an earnings haircut of almost 50 percent, bringing home $2.2 billion, vs. $4.0 billion in 2009.

"In 2001, the combined income of the top hedge-fund managers was less than $5 billion -- about what Paulson alone made in 2010," said AR Editor Michelle Celarier.

In second place for 2010 was Ray Dalio, chief of the largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates. Dalio earned $3.1 billion, roughly $2 billion more than in 2009.

Retired James Simons of Renaissance Technologies banked $2.5 billion, Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors was at $1.3 billion while Eddie Lampert of ESL Investments came in at $1.1 billion.

Finishing in the top 10 were: Carl Icahn, with $900 million in earnings, down from $1.3 billion in 2009; Bruce Kovner of Caxton Associates, with $640 million; George Soros, at $450 million, down from $3.3 billion in 2009 and Paul Tudor Jones of tudor investment, with $440 million.

Some notables fell off the top 25. John Arnold of Centaurus Energy, who made $900 million in 2009, didn't rank last year. Also missing from this year's list was Philip Falcone of Harbinger Capital Partners, who earned $825 million in 2009.

harbinger capital partners, steven cohen of sac capital advisors, sac capital advisors, centaurus energy, hedge fund managers, caxton associates, bruce kovner, paul tudor jones, appaloosa management, david tepper, eddie lampert, ray dalio, john paulson, top hedge fund managers, james simons, bridgewater associates, esl investments, renaissance technologies, george soros, tudor investment

Nypost.com