برنارد ليفي

برنارد ليفي

برنار هنري ليفي (بالفرنسية: Bernard-Henri Lévy)‏ (وُلد في 5 نوفمبر سنة 1948 -) هو كاتب ومفكر وفيلسوف فرنسي. وكان من أهم قادة حركة الفلسفة الجديدة سنة 1976.

ولد ليفي لعائلة سفاردية يهودية ثرية في الجزائر في 5 نوفمبر 1948 في مدينة بني صاف الجزائرية إبان الاحتلال الفرنسي للجزائر، وقد انتقلت عائلته لباريس بعد أشهر من ميلاده. وقد درس الفلسفة في جامعة فرنسية راقية وعلمها فيما بعد، واشتهر كأحد "الفلاسفة الجدد"، وهم جماعة انتقدت الاشتراكية بلا هوادة واعتبرتها "فاسدة أخلاقياً"، وهو ما عبر عنه في كتابه الذي ترجم لعدة لغات تحت عنوان: "البربرية بوجه إنساني". وهو متزوج من الممثلة الفرنسية " أرييل دومباسل " وانجبت له ابنتين ثم طلقها وتزوج "Sylvie Bouscasse "

المراجع

https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%D8%B1%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B1_%D9%87%D9%86%D8%B1%D9%8A_%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%81%D9%8A

Bill Gates

Bill Gates

William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, software developer, investor, and philanthropist. He is best known as the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation.  During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president and chief software architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014. He is one of the best-known entrepreneurs and pioneers of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s.

Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Gates co-founded Microsoft with childhood friend Paul Allen in 1975, in Albuquerque, New Mexico; it went on to become the world's largest personal computer software company. [a] Gates led the company as chairman and CEO until stepping down as CEO in January 2000, but he remained chairman and became chief software architect.  During the late 1990s, Gates had been criticized for his business tactics, which have been considered anti-competitive. This opinion has been upheld by numerous court rulings.  In June 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning to a part-time role at Microsoft and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the private charitable foundation that he and his wife, Melinda Gates, established in 2000.  He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie.  He stepped down as chairman of Microsoft in February 2014 and assumed a new post as technology adviser to support the newly appointed CEO Satya Nadella. 

Since 1987, he has been included in the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest people.  From 1995 to 2017, he held the Forbes title of the richest person in the world all but four of those years  In October 2017, he was surpassed by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who had an estimated net worth of US$90.6 billion compared to Gates' net worth of US$89.9 billion at the time As of July 2020, Gates had an estimated net worth of US$111.8 billion, making him the second-wealthiest person in the world, behind Bezos. 

Later in his career and since leaving day-to-day operations at Microsoft in 2008, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors. He has given sizable amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reported to be the world's largest private charity.  In 2009, Gates and Warren Buffett founded The Giving Pledge, whereby they and other billionaires pledge to give at least half of their wealth to philanthropy.  The foundation works to improve global health, and is working with Rotary International to eliminate polio. 

Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, on October 28, 1955.  He is the son of William H. Gates Sr.[c] (b. 1925) and Mary Maxwell Gates (1929–1994). His ancestry includes English, German, and Irish/Scots-Irish.  His father was a prominent lawyer, and his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way of America. Gates' maternal grandfather was J. W. Maxwell, a national bank president. Gates has an older sister Kristi (Kristianne) and a younger sister Libby. He is the fourth of his name in his family but is known as William Gates III or "Trey" (i.e., three) because his father had the "II" suffix.  The family lived in the Sand Point area of Seattle in a home that was damaged by a rare tornado when Gates was seven years old. 

Early in his life, Gates observed that his parents wanted him to pursue a law career.  When he was young, his family regularly attended a church of the Congregational Christian Churches, a Protestant Reformed denomination. Gates was small for his age and was bullied as a child.  The family encouraged competition; one visitor reported that "it didn't matter whether it was hearts or pickleball or swimming to the dock; there was always a reward for winning and there was always a penalty for losing"

At 13, he enrolled in the private Lakeside prep school,  where he wrote his first software program.  When he was in the eighth grade, the Mothers' Club at the school used proceeds from Lakeside School's rummage sale to buy a Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric (GE) computer for the students.  Gates took an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC, and he was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. He wrote his first computer program on this machine, an implementation of tic-tac-toe that allowed users to play games against the computer. Gates was fascinated by the machine and how it would always execute software code perfectly.  After the Mothers Club donation was exhausted, Gates and other students sought time on systems including DEC PDP minicomputers. One of these systems was a PDP-10 belonging to Computer Center Corporation (CCC) which banned for the summer Gates, Paul Allen, Ric Weiland, and Gates' best friend and first business partner Kent Evans, after it caught them exploiting bugs in the operating system to obtain free computer time. 

The four students formed the Lakeside Programmers Club to make money.  At the end of the ban, they offered to find bugs in CCC's software in exchange for extra computer time. Rather than use the system remotely via Teletype, Gates went to CCC's offices and studied source code for various programs that ran on the system, including Fortran, Lisp, and machine language. The arrangement with CCC continued until 1970 when the company went out of business.

The following year, a Lakeside teacher enlisted Gates and Evans to automate the school's class-scheduling system, providing them computer time and royalties in return. The duo worked diligently in order to have the program ready for their senior year. Towards the end of their junior year, Evans was killed in a mountain climbing accident, which Gates has described as one of the saddest days of his life. Gates then turned to Allen who helped him finish the system for Lakeside. 

At 17, Gates formed a venture with Allen called Traf-O-Data to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor.  In 1972, he served as a congressional page in the House of Representatives.  He was a National Merit Scholar when he graduated from Lakeside School in 1973.  He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) and enrolled at Harvard College in the autumn of 1973.  He chose a pre-law major but took mathematics and graduate level computer science courses.  While at Harvard, he met fellow student Steve Ballmer. Gates left Harvard after two years while Ballmer stayed and graduated magna cum laude. Years later, Ballmer succeeded Gates as Microsoft's CEO and maintained that position from 2000 until his resignation in 2014. 

Gates devised an algorithm for pancake sorting as a solution to one of a series of unsolved problems  presented in a combinatorics class by professor Harry Lewis. His solution held the record as the fastest version for over 30 years, and its successor is faster by only 2%.  His solution was formalized and published in collaboration with Harvard computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou. 

Gates remained in contact with Paul Allen and joined him at Honeywell during the summer of 1974.  In 1975, the MITS Altair 8800 was released based on the Intel 8080 CPU, and Gates and Allen saw the opportunity to start their own computer software company.  Gates dropped out of Harvard that same year. His parents were supportive of him after seeing how much he wanted to start his own company.  He explained his decision to leave Harvard: "if things hadn't worked out, I could always go back to school. I was officially on leave." 

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates

Dante Bichette

Dante Bichette

Alphonse Dante Bichette Sr. (/ˈdɑːnteɪ bɪˈʃɛt/; born November 18, 1963) is an American former professional baseball player and current hitting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as an outfielder for the California Angels (1988–1990), Milwaukee Brewers (1991–1992), Colorado Rockies (1993–1999), Cincinnati Reds (2000), and Boston Red Sox (2000–2001). He was also the hitting coach for the Rockies in 2013. He batted and threw right-handed.

Bichette was a four-time All-Star as a member of the Rockies, and was a member of the 1993 inaugural team. In 1995, he won the Silver Slugger Award and finished second in the Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) voting while leading the National League in home runs, runs batted in, slugging percentage, total bases and hits. The next year, he joined the 30–30 club with 31 home runs and 31 stolen bases, and in 1998, again led the league in hits with 219. Each year from 1993−1998 he batted over .300, and in each year from 1995−1999, drove in at least 100 runs.

Bichette attended Jupiter High School in Jupiter, Florida, and Palm Beach Community College. The California Angels drafted Bichette in the 17th round of the 1984 Major League Baseball draft.

Bichette made his MLB debut with the Angels in 1988, but was a streaky hitter and was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in 1991. After putting up only average numbers with Milwaukee, he was traded to the new expansion team, the Colorado Rockies. On April 7, 1993 he hit the first home-run in Rockies history, a solo shot off New York Mets pitcher Bret Saberhagen. Bichette was part of the "Blake Street Bombers" which also included sluggers Larry Walker, Andrés Galarraga, and Vinny Castilla.

He finished the Rockies' first season with 21 home runs and a .310 batting average, his personal best for both at the time. Bichette also hit his first home run at the newly constructed Coors Field, a 14th-inning smash against the Mets that secured an opening day victory for the Rockies in 1995. Bichette had his best season in 1995, coming very close to the Triple Crown with a .340 batting average, 40 home runs and 128 RBIs and barely lost the MVP voting to the Cincinnati Reds' Barry Larkin.

Bichette, who stood 6 feet 3 inches (191 cm) tall and weighed 215 pounds (98 kg; 15 st 5 lb), began having knee problems in 1996, but was still successful as a hitter, with a .316 average, 31 home runs and 141 RBIs, plus 31 stolen bases. The 1996 season was only the second time ever that two players on the same team hit at least 30 home runs and collected 30 stolen bases, as Ellis Burks accomplished the same feat. Over the next three seasons, Bichette hit 26, 22 and 34 home runs for the Rockies. He remains in the top ten in many offensive categories for the Rockies. 

On April 4, 1999, the Rockies made history as they played their Opening Day contest at Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico, marking the first time Major League Baseball (MLB) commenced the regular season outside of the United States or Canada. Their opponent was the defending National League champion San Diego Padres. Bichette collected four hits, drove in four runs, and homered  as Colorado won 8–2. 

But by the end of the 1999 season, his production was beginning to drop and the Rockies dealt Bichette to the Cincinnati Reds. However, his fielding was suffering tremendously and Bichette was eventually traded to the Boston Red Sox  for a season and a half and then the Los Angeles Dodgers. Bichette retired before ever playing a game with the Dodgers, on March 22, 2002.

In August 2004, Bichette rejoined professional baseball as a designated hitter, pitcher and occasional outfielder for the Atlantic League's Nashua Pride. Bichette won the Atlantic League's Player of the Month award for August (his first full month back). He completed the month with a .361 average and 13 homers. On August 28, he batted 4-for-5 with two home runs and eight RBIs.

On November 13, 2012, Bichette was hired to be the Colorado Rockies hitting coach, replacing Carney Lansford.  He announced on September 24, 2013 that he would not return for the 2014 season. 

On July 24, 2020, it was confirmed during the opening game of the Toronto Blue Jays season that Bichette had been added to the Jays coaching staff full time after the summer camp.  

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Bichette

UFO

UFO

An unidentified flying object (UFO) is any aerial phenomenon that cannot immediately be identified or explained. Most UFOs are identified on investigation as conventional objects or phenomena. The term is widely used for claimed observations of extraterrestrial spacecraft.

The term "UFO" (or "UFOB") was coined in 1953 by the United States Air Force (USAF) to serve as a catch-all for all such reports. In its initial definition, the USAF stated that a "UFOB" was "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object". Accordingly, the term was initially restricted to that fraction of cases which remained unidentified after investigation, as the USAF was interested in potential national security reasons and "technical aspects" (see Air Force Regulation 200-2).

During the late 1940s and through the 1950s, UFOs were often referred to popularly as "flying saucers" or "flying discs". The term UFO became more widespread during the 1950s, at first in technical literature, but later in popular use. UFOs garnered considerable interest during the Cold War, an era associated with a heightened concern for national security, and, more recently, in the 2010s, for unexplained reasons.  Nevertheless, various studies have concluded that the phenomenon does not represent a threat to national security, nor does it contain anything worthy of scientific pursuit (e.g., 1951 Flying Saucer Working Party, 1953 CIA Robertson Panel, USAF Project Blue Book, Condon Committee).

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a UFO as "An unidentified flying object; a 'flying saucer'". The first published book to use the word was authored by Donald E. Keyhoe. 

As an acronym, "UFO" was coined by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, who headed Project Blue Book, then the USAF's official investigation of UFOs. He wrote, "Obviously the term 'flying saucer' is misleading when applied to objects of every conceivable shape and performance. For this reason the military prefers the more general, if less colorful, name: unidentified flying objects. UFO (pronounced Yoo-foe) for short."  Other phrases that were used officially and that predate the UFO acronym include "flying flapjack", "flying disc", "unexplained flying discs", and "unidentifiable object". 

The phrase "flying saucer" had gained widespread attention after the summer of 1947. On June 24, a civilian pilot named Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier. Arnold timed the sighting and estimated the speed of discs to be over 1,200 mph (1,931 km/h). At the time, he claimed he described the objects flying in a saucer-like fashion, leading to newspaper accounts of "flying saucers" and "flying discs".  UFOs were commonly referred to colloquially, as a "Bogey" by military personnel and pilots during the cold war. The term "bogey" was originally used to report anomalies in radar blips, to indicate possible hostile forces that might be roaming in the area. 

In popular usage, the term UFO came to be used to refer to claims of alien spacecraft,  and because of the public and media ridicule associated with the topic, some ufologists and investigators prefer to use terms such as "unidentified aerial phenomenon" (UAP) or "anomalous phenomena", as in the title of the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP).  "Anomalous aerial vehicle" (AAV) or "unidentified aerial system" (UAS) are also sometimes used in a military aviation context to describe unidentified targets. 

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidentified_flying_object

تورونتو رابتورز

تورونتو رابتورز

نادي تورونتو رابتورز هو نادي كرة سلة من تورونتو، أونتاريو، كندا. تأسس عام 1995. يعد الفريق الوحيد غير الأمريكي في الدوري الأمريكي لكرة السلة للمحترفين.

مراجع

https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D8%AA%D9%88_%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%B2

Raptors

Raptors

The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. They play their home games at the Scotiabank Arena, which they share with the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL). The team was founded in 1995 as part of the NBA's expansion into Canada, along with the Vancouver Grizzlies. Since the 2001–02 season, the Raptors have been the only Canadian-based team in the league, as the Grizzlies relocated from Vancouver to Memphis, Tennessee.

As with most expansion teams, the Raptors struggled in their early years; but after the acquisition of Vince Carter through a draft-day trade in 1998, the franchise set league-attendance records and made the NBA playoffs in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Carter was instrumental in leading the team to their first playoff series win in 2001, where they advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals. During the 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons, they failed to make significant progress, and Carter was traded in 2004 to the New Jersey Nets.

After Carter left, Chris Bosh emerged as the team leader. For the 2006–07 season, Bryan Colangelo was appointed as general manager, and through a combination of Bosh, 2006 first overall draft pick Andrea Bargnani, and a revamp of the roster, the Raptors qualified for their first playoff berth in five years, capturing the Atlantic Division title. In the 2007–08 season, they also advanced to the playoffs but failed to reach the post-season in each of the next five seasons. Colangelo overhauled the team's roster for the 2009–10 season in a bid to persuade pending free agent Bosh to stay, but Bosh departed to sign with the Miami Heat in July 2010, ushering in yet another era of rebuilding for the Raptors.

Masai Ujiri replaced Colangelo in 2013 and helped herald a new era of success, led by a backcourt duo of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry. The Raptors returned to the playoffs the following year and became a consistent playoff team in every year of Ujiri's tenure. Under Ujiri, the team also won five Division titles and registered their most successful regular season in 2018. However, the team's failure to reach the NBA Finals prompted Ujiri to fire head coach Dwane Casey after the 2018 playoffs concluded, and conduct the high-profile trade of DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green later that summer, as well as acquiring Marc Gasol before the trade deadline. In the 2019 playoffs, the Raptors won their first Eastern Conference title and advanced to their first NBA Finals, where they won their first NBA championship.

On November 1, 1946, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, in what was the first game played in NBA history (as the Basketball Association of America). However, the Huskies folded after the initial 1946–47 season. Toronto did not host another NBA game until the 1970s, when the Buffalo Beauts played a total of 16 regular season games at Maple Leaf Gardens from 1971 to 1975. 

Interest to move, or expand an NBA franchise to Toronto grew during the 1980s. Although the logistics and costs associated with basing a team in Canada were often thought of as deterrents for Canadian expansion by American-based sports leagues; the size of Toronto's media market made its potential difficult to ignore. The NBA organized two exhibition games with an attendance of over 25,000 people in the newly built SkyDome in 1989 and 1993.

On April 23, 1993, Professional Basketball Franchise (Canada) Inc. (PBF) formally submitted an application for a Toronto-based team, one of three groups seeking the rights to the franchise. Also in the running were Maple Leaf Garden Ltd., predecessor to MLSE and the owners of Maple Leaf Gardens. Later that year, in July, the NBA Expansion Committee visited various existing and proposed stadium sites along with the bid contenders. On September 30, 1993, the committee recommended conditionally awarding PBF the franchise

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Raptors

Philadelphia Phillies

Philadelphia Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has been Citizens Bank Park, located in South Philadelphia. The Phillies are the oldest continuous one-name, one-city franchise in American professional sports.

The Phillies have won two World Series championships (against the Kansas City Royals in 1980 and the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008) and seven National League pennants, the first of which came in 1915. Since the first modern World Series was played in 1903, the Phillies played 77 consecutive seasons (and 97 seasons from the club's establishment) before they won their first World Series—longer than any of the other 16 teams that made up the major leagues for the first half of the 20th century. They are one of the more successful franchises since the start of the Divisional Era in Major League Baseball. The Phillies have won 11 division titles, including five consecutive division titles from 2007 to 2011; these are ranked sixth among all teams and fourth in the National League. Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt is widely considered the franchise's greatest player of all time. 

The franchise was founded in Philadelphia in 1883, replacing the team from Worcester, Massachusetts, in the National League. The team has played at several stadiums in the city, beginning with Recreation Park and continuing at Baker Bowl; Shibe Park, which was later renamed Connie Mack Stadium in honor of the longtime Philadelphia Athletics manager; Veterans Stadium, and now Citizens Bank Park.

The team's spring training facilities are located in Clearwater, Florida, where its Class-A minor league affiliate Clearwater Threshers plays at Spectrum Field. Other Class-A affiliates are the Lakewood BlueClaws, who play in Lakewood, New Jersey, and the Williamsport Crosscutters, who play in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Phillies' Double-A affiliate is the Reading Fightin Phils, which play in Reading, Pennsylvania. The Triple-A affiliate is the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, playing in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

From 1883-2020, the Phillies' overall win-loss record is 9825-11000 (a 0.472 winning percentage). 

In 1883, sporting goods manufacturer Al Reach (a pioneering professional baseball player) and attorney John Rogers won an expansion National League franchise for Philadelphia, one of what is now known as the "Classic Eight" of the National League. They were awarded a spot in the league to replace the Worcester Brown Stockings, a franchise that had folded in 1882. The new team was nicknamed the "Quakers", and immediately compiled a .173 winning percentage, which is still the worst in franchise history. Although many sources (including the Phillies themselves) claim that Reach and Rogers bought the Brown Stockings and moved them to Philadelphia, all available evidence suggests this is not the case. Significantly, no players from Worcester ended up with the 1883 Quakers. 

In 1884, Harry Wright, the former manager of baseball's first openly professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, was recruited as a manager in hopes of reversing the team's fortunes. Also in 1884, the team changed its name to the "Philadelphians", as it was common for baseball teams in that era to be named after their cities (for instance, the "Bostons" and "New Yorks"). However, as "Philadelphians" was somewhat hard to fit in newspaper headlines, some writers still continued to call them the "Quakers" while others began shortening the name to "Phillies." 

In 1887, the team began to play at the newly constructed Philadelphia Base Ball Grounds, later renamed National League Park. The stadium would eventually become known as Baker Bowl. Despite a general improvement from their dismal beginnings, they never seriously contended for the title.

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Phillies