Montreal Canadiens

Montreal Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens  (French: Les Canadiens de Montréal) are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The club's official name is le Club de hockey Canadien.  The team is frequently referred to in English and French as the Habs. French nicknames for the team include Les Canadiens (or Le Canadien), Le Bleu-Blanc-Rouge, La Sainte-Flanelle, Le Tricolore, Les Glorieux (or Nos Glorieux), Le CH, Le Grand Club and Les Habitants (from which "Habs" is derived).

Founded in 1909, the Canadiens are the longest continuously operating professional ice hockey team worldwide, and the only existing NHL club to predate the founding of the NHL. One of the oldest North American professional sports franchises, the Canadiens' history predates that of every other Canadian franchise outside football as well as every American franchise outside baseball and the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals. The franchise is one of the "Original Six" teams, a description used for the teams that made up the NHL from 1942 until the 1967 expansion. The team's championship season in 1992–93 was the last time a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup 

The Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup more times than any other franchise. They have won 24 Stanley Cup championships, 23 of them since the founding of the NHL and 22 of them since 1927, when NHL teams became the only ones to compete for the Stanley Cup.  On a percentage basis, as of March, 2019, the franchise has won 25.0% of all Stanley Cup championships contested in the post-1926 NHL Stanley Cup era, making it the most successful professional sports team of the traditional four major sports of Canada and the United States. As of March, 2019, the Boston Celtics have the highest percentage of National Basketball Association championships with 23.3%, and in Major League Baseball, the New York Yankees have the highest percentage with 23.5%.  The Canadiens also had the most championships by a team of any of the four major North American sports until the New York Yankees won their 25th World Series title in 1999.

Since 1996, the Canadiens have played their home games at Bell Centre, originally known as Molson Centre.  The team previously played at the Montreal Forum which housed the team for seven decades and all but their first two Stanley Cup championships. 

The Canadiens were founded by J. Ambrose O'Brien on December 4, 1909, as a charter member of the National Hockey Association,  the forerunner to the National Hockey League. It was to be the team of the francophone community in Montreal, composed of francophone players, and under francophone ownership as soon as possible.  The team's first season was not a success, as they placed last. After the first year, ownership was transferred to George Kennedy of Montreal and the team's fortunes improved over the next seasons.  The team won its first Stanley Cup championship in the 1915–16 season.  In 1917, with four other NHA teams, the Canadiens formed the NHL, and they won their first NHL Stanley Cup during the 1923–24 season, led by Howie Morenz.   The team moved from the Mount Royal Arena to the Montreal Forum for the 1926–27 season. 

The club began the 1930s decade successfully, with Stanley Cup wins in 1930 and 1931. The Canadiens and its then-Montreal rival, the Montreal Maroons, declined both on the ice and economically during the Great Depression. Losses grew to the point where the team owners considering selling the team to interests in Cleveland, Ohio, though local investors were ultimately found to finance the Canadiens.  The Maroons still suspended operations, and several of their players moved to the Canadiens

Led by the "Punch Line" of Maurice "Rocket" Richard, Toe Blake and Elmer Lach in the 1940s, the Canadiens enjoyed success again atop the NHL. From 1953 to 1960, the franchise won six Stanley Cups, including a record five straight from 1956 to 1960, with a new set of stars coming to prominence: Jean Beliveau, Dickie Moore, Doug Harvey, Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion, Jacques Plante and Richard's younger brother, Henri. 

The Canadiens added ten more championships in 15 seasons from 1965 to 1979, with another dynastic run of four-straight Cups from 1976 to 1979.  In the 1976–77 season, the Canadiens set two still-standing team records – for most points, with 132, and fewest losses, by only losing eight games in an 80-game season.  The next season, 1977–78, the team had a 28-game unbeaten streak, the second-longest in NHL history.  The next generation of stars included Guy Lafleur, Yvan Cournoyer, Ken Dryden, Pete Mahovlich, Jacques Lemaire, Pierre Larouche, Steve Shutt, Bob Gainey, Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe and Larry Robinson. Scotty Bowman, who would later set a record for most NHL victories by a coach, was the team's head coach for its last five Stanley Cup victories in the 1970s

The Canadiens won Stanley Cups in 1986, led by rookie star goaltender Patrick Roy,  and in 1993, continuing their streak of winning at least one championship in every decade from the 1910s to the 1990s (this streak came to an end in the 2000s).  In 1996, the Habs moved from the Montreal Forum, their home during 70 seasons and 22 Stanley Cups, to Molson Centre (now called Bell Centre). 

Following Roy's departure in 1995, the Canadiens fell into an extended stretch of mediocrity,  missing the playoffs in four of their next ten seasons and failing to advance past the second round of the playoffs until 2010.  By the late 1990s, with both an ailing team and monetary losses exacerbated by a record-low value of the Canadian dollar, Montreal fans feared their team would end up relocated to the United States. Team owner Molson Brewery sold control of the franchise and the Molson Centre to American businessman George N. Gillett Jr. in 2001, with the right of first refusal for any future sale by Gillett and a condition that the NHL Board of Governors must unanimously approve any attempt to move to a new city.  Led by president Pierre Boivin, the Canadiens returned to being a lucrative enterprise, earning additional revenues from broadcasting and arena events. In 2009, Gillett sold the franchise to a consortium led by the Molson family which included The Woodbridge Company, BCE/Bell, the Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Michael Andlauer, Luc Bertrand and the National Bank Financial Group for $575 million, more than double the $275 million he spent on the purchase eight years prior. 

During the 2008–09 season, the Canadiens celebrated their 100th anniversary with various events,  including hosting both the 2009 NHL All-Star Game, and the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.  The Canadiens became the first team in NHL history to reach 3,000 victories with their 5–2 victory over the Florida Panthers on December 29, 2008

Reference

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

Ethan Bear

Ethan Bear

Ethan Bear (born June 26, 1997) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman  currently playing for the Edmonton Oilers in the National Hockey League (NHL).

He was drafted in the fifth round in the 2015 Draft by the Edmonton Oilers and played for the Seattle Thunderbirds in the WHL.  He was signed to a three-year, entry-level contract with the Oilers on July 2, 2016.  Bear made his NHL debut on March 1, 2018, in a game against the Nashville Predators.  He recorded his first NHL goal in a 5–4 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks on March 25, 2018

Bear was born in Regina, Saskatchewan and raised in the Ochapowace Nation near Whitewood, Saskatchewan.  His older brother, Everett, also played hockey.  He faced racism from hockey fans relying on stereotypes for being a "lazy" player while growing up, but that motivated him to work harder and he drew inspiration from his brother and other Indigenous hockey players, including Carey Price, Jordin Tootoo, Brandon Montour, Arron Asham and Micheal Ferland.  In the summer, he gives back by running a youth hockey camp in Ochapowace. 

Reference

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

كامالا هاريس

كامالا هاريس

كامالا ديفي هارس (بالإنجليزية: Kamala Harris)‏ (من مواليد 20 أكتوبر عام 1964)^[4] هي محامية وسياسية أمريكية وتشغل، منذ عام 2017، منصب سيناتور عن ولاية كاليفورنيا في مجلس الشيوخ الأمريكي. شغلت هاريس في الفترة ما بين عامي 2004 و 2011، وبصفتها عضو في الحزب الديموقراطي، منصب مدعي عام سان فرانسيسكو، وشغلت، بين عامي 2011 و 2017، منصب النائب العام الثاني والثلاثين لولاية كاليفورنيا.

ولدت هاريس في مدينة أوكلاند في ولاية كاليفورنيا الأمريكية، وتخرجت من جامعة هوارد، ومن كلية هاستينغز للقانون في جامعة كاليفورنيا. عملت هاريس في التسعينيات من القرن العشرين في مكتب المدعي العام لمنطقة سان فرانسيسكو ومكتب المدعي العام لمدينة سان فرانسيسكو. انتُخبت في عام 2004 لمنصب مدعي عام مقاطعة سان فرانسيسكو.

في عام 2010، فازت هاريس في انتخابات المدعي العام لكاليفورنيا، وأُعيد انتخابها لنفس المنصب مرة أخرى عام 2014 بفارق أصوات كبير عن باقي المرشحين. في 8 نوفمبر من عام 2016، هزمت هاريس لوريتا سانشيز في انتخابات مجلس الشيوخ لتخلف السيناتور باربرا بوكسر المنتتهية ولايتها، وأصبحت بذلك ثالث امرأة تشغل مقعد السيناتور الأمريكي عن ولاية كاليفورنيا، وأول سيناتور من أصول هندية أو جامايكية.^[5] دعمت هاريس، بعد حصولها على مقعد مجلس الشيوخ، الرعاية الصحية ذات الدفع الفردي، ومشروع إزالة القنب من الجدول الأول للمواد الخاضعة للرقابة، إضافة لدعمها لإيجاد سبل لمساعدة المهاجرين غير المسجلين للحصول على الجنسية، ولقانون تطوير ورعاية وتثقيف المهاجرين القُصّر (المعروف اختصارًا باللغة الانكليزية بـ (DREAM ACT))، ولحظر البنادق الهجومية، ولتخفيض الأعباء الضريبية عن الطبقتين العاملة والمتوسطة مقابل زيادتها على الشركات وعلى ما نسبته 1% من الأمريكيين الأكثر ثراءً.

خاضت هاريس انتخابات الرئاسة الأمريكية لعام 2020 كمرشحة عن الحزب الديموقراطي، قبل إنهاء حملتها الانتخابية في 3 ديسمبر من عام 2019.^[6]

حياتها المبكرة والتعليم[عدل]

ولدت كامالا ديفي هاريس في 20 أكتوبر من عام 1964، في مدينة أوكلاند بولاية كاليفورنيا الأمريكية. كانت والدتها (شيامالا غوبالان) عالمة تاميلية هندية متخصصة بسرطان الثدي، هاجرت إلى الولايات المتحدة من مدينة مدراس بولاية تامبل نادو الهندية عام 1960 بهدف الحصول على درجة الدكتوراه في علم الغدد الصماء من جامعة كاليفورنيا في بركلي.^[7][8] أما والدها، دونالد هاريس، فهو أستاذ في علوم الاقتصاد في جامعة ستانفورد هاجر من جامايكا في عام 1961 بهدف إكمال دراساته العليا في الاقتصاد في جامعة كاليفورنيا في بركلي.^[9][10] لكامالا شقيقة واحد فقط تصغرها بالعمر، واسمها مايا هاريس.^[11][12] اختارت الوالدة أن تمنح كلتا طفلتيها أسماء سنسكريتية مستمدة من الأساطير الهندوسية بهدف الحفاظ على هويتهما الثقافية،^[13] كامالا أيضًا سليلة أحد ملّاك الرقيق الجامايكيين.^[14]

تصنف كامالا على أنها هندية ومن أصحاب البشرة السوداء،^[15] لكنها ترى نفسها أمريكية بالدرجة الأولى.^[16] نشأت هاريس في مدينة بركلي بولاية كاليفورنيا الأمريكية،^[17] واعتادت، منذ صغرها، على ارتياد كنيسة السود المعمدانية، حيث غنت مع أختها في جوقتها الموسيقية، واعتادت أيضًا على ارتياد أحد المعابد الهندوسية.^[18][19]

كانت والدة هاريس من طبقة البراهمة العليا في الهندوسية،^[20] وتعود أصولها إلى حي بيسانت ناجار في مدينة مدراس بولاية تاميل نادو الهندية، ويمكن أن تعود بنسلها إلى عائلة الغوبالان لأكثر من ألف عام.^[21] وُصفت شيامالا بأنها «ناشطة نسوية تعتبر النساء اللاتي كنّ يعملن في غسل ثيابها ضحايا للعنف المنزلي». اعتادت هاريس، في فترة طفولتها، على زيارة أفراد أسرتها الموسعة في مدينة مدراس، وكانت مقربة جدًا من جدها لأمها «بي في غوبالان» الذي كان دبلوماسيًا هنديًا.^[21]

بدأت هاريس بارتياد روضة للأطفال خلال السنة الثانية من تطبيق برنامج مدارس بركلي لإلغاء الفصل العنصري في الحافلات المدرسية، والذي اعتمد على الاستخدام المكثف للحافلات، في محاولة لتحقيق التوازن العرقي في المدارس العامة في المدينة، كانت نسبة الركاب البيض في الباص الذي كان يقلها إلى مدرستها، قبل عامين من دخولها للروضة، 95%.^[22][23]

انفصل والدا هاريس عندما كانت في السابعة من عمرها، وومُنحت الأم شيمالا حضانة الطفلتين. ذكرت هاريس أنّه لم يكن من المسموح لأطفال الجيران أن يلعبوا معها ومع شقيقتها، عندما كنّ يزرن والدهنّ في عطلة نهاية الأسبوع، لأنهنّ من أصحاب البشرة السوداء.

انتقلت هاريس، عندما بلغت الثانية عشر من عمرها، مع شقيقتها مايا ووالدتها إلى مدينة مونتريال الواقعة في مقاطعة كيبك الكندية، حيث عملت -فيما بعد- بوظيفة بحثية في المستشفى اليهودي العام، إضافة إلى عملها بالتدريس في جامعة ماكجيل.^[24][25][26] كانت هاريس تتمتع بشعبية كبيرة في مدرسة ويستماونت الثانوية في مدينة ويستماونت في مقاطعة كيبك.^[27] شاركت هاريس -في فترة مراهقتها- في تأسيس فرقة راقصة صغيرة تتكون من ستة راقصين، وأدت معها عددًا من العروض الراقصة في المراكز المجتمعية وفي الجمعيات الخيرية.^[28]

تخرجت هاريس من المدرسة الثانوية في عام 1981.^[29][30] التحقت بعدها بجامعة هوارد في واشنطن، باختصاص الاقتصاد والعلوم السياسية، انتُخبت لعضوية مجلس طلاب الفنون الليبرالية، فشاركت في محادثات الفريق، ونظمت برامج توجيه الشباب المحلي، وتظاهرت ضد الفصل العنصري، وانضمت إلى منظمة ألفا كابا ألفا.^[31][32]

عادت هاريس بعد ذلك إلى كاليفورنيا، حيث حصلت في عام 1989 على درجة الدكتوراه في القانون من كلية هاستينغز للقانون في جامعة كاليفورنيا،^[33] وحصلت في عام 1990 على قبول في نقابة المحامين في ولاية كاليفورنيا. قررت هاريس، إيمانًا منها بحاجة العالم إلى «مدعين عامين أكثر وعيًا اجتماعيًا»، البحثَ عن وظيفة تمكنها من تطبيق القانون، لأنها أرادت أن تكون «موجودة على الطاولة حيث يتم اتخاذ القرارات».

المراجع

https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%83%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7_%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B3

Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris

Kamala Devi Harris (/ˈkɑːmələ/ KAH-mə-lə;  born October 20, 1964)  is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States Senator from California since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Harris is the first Indian American and second African American woman to be elected to the United States Senate. 

Born in Oakland, California, Harris is a graduate of Howard University and University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Harris began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office before being recruited to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and later the City Attorney of San Francisco's office. In 2004, she was elected the 27th District Attorney of San Francisco, serving until 2011.

Harris was elected Attorney General of California in 2010, and was re-elected in 2014 with an increased margin. On November 8, 2016, she defeated Loretta Sanchez in the 2016 Senate election to succeed outgoing Senator Barbara Boxer, becoming California's third female U.S. Senator. As a senator, she has supported single-payer healthcare, federal descheduling of cannabis, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, the DREAM Act, a ban on assault weapons, and progressive tax reform. She gained a national profile after her pointed questioning of Trump administration officials during Senate hearings, including U.S. Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr, and Associate Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh. 

She ran for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2020 election, briefly becoming a frontrunner before ending her campaign on December 3, 2019. 

Kamala Devi Harris was born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland, California. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a Tamil Indian breast-cancer scientist who immigrated from India in 1960 to pursue a doctorate in endocrinology at UC Berkeley.  She was from the Besant Nagar neighborhood of Chennai, Tamil Nadu.  Her father, Donald Harris, is a Stanford University Emeritus Professor of Economics, who emigrated from Jamaica in 1961 for graduate study in economics at UC Berkeley.   His academic career includes Faculty Fellow at Cambridge University, Fulbright Scholar in Brazil and Mexico, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Yale University. 

She identifies herself as black and sees her experience primarily as American.  Harris was raised in Berkeley, California, with her younger sister, Maya Harris.  She grew up attending both a Black Baptist church, where she and her sister sang in the choir, and a Hindu temple. As a child, Harris used to visit her extended family in Chennai and was reportedly close to her maternal grandfather P.V. Gopalan, a career civil servant for the federal Government of India.  Harris began kindergarten in the second year of Berkeley's school desegregation busing program, which adopted busing to bring racial balance to the city's public schools; a bus drove her to a school which, two years prior, had been 95% white. Her parents divorced when she was 7; when she and her sister would visit their father in Palo Alto on weekends, she stated that neighbors' kids were not allowed to play with them because they were black.  When she was 12, Harris and her sister moved with their mother to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where their mother had accepted a research position at Jewish General Hospital and teaching at McGill University.  She was a popular student at Westmount High School in Westmount, Quebec, graduating in 1981. 

She went on to Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she double-majored in political science and economics, interned as a mailroom clerk for California Senator Alan Cranston, chaired the economics society, led the debate team, demonstrated against apartheid, and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.  Harris returned to California, where in 1989 she earned her Juris Doctor from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. 

Reference

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

Grounded

Grounded

Grounded is an upcoming survival game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios. It was released for Windows and Xbox One on July 28, 2020 as an early access game. In the game, the player character has been shrunk to the size of an ant and must struggle to survive in a backyard filled with dangers.

Grounded is a survival game that can be played either in first-person or a third-person. In the game, the protagonist is shrunk to the size of an ant and must strive to survive in a backyard. In the game, the player character needs to consume an adequate amount of food and water, or they will lose health due to starvation or dehydration respectively.  The backyard is filled with various bugs and insects, including spiders, bees, dust mites, mantis and ladybugs. Different insects serve different purposes in the game. For instance, spiders are one of the game's apex predators that will hunt down the players, ladybugs can lead players to food sources, and aphids can be cooked and consumed for food. Players can also cut down grass to collect dewdrops.  The game has an accessibility option for players who have arachnophobia, which allows players to decide how scary spiders are going to be in the game. 

As players progress in the game, they will visit new areas in the backyard. The game's difficulty would slowly increase and enemies that are more dangerous would be introduced. Throughout the game, players need to scavenge resources in the world in order to construct a base so as to defend themselves from hostile enemies, in particular during nighttime as some of the insects become more aggressive.  The resources can also be used to craft different tools, traps and weapons, such as axes, spears and bows and arrows, to defeat enemies.  Players also need to manage their stamina as the playable character may become exhausted in sustained combat.  The game can be played solo, though it also has a four-player cooperative multiplayer mode. 

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grounded_(video_game)

Bailey Island Maine

Bailey Island Maine

Bailey Island is an island in Casco Bay, and a part of the town of Harpswell, in Cumberland County, Maine. As of the 2000 census, the island had a year-round population of 400.

Bailey Island originally bore the name Newaggin, given to it by the local Abenaki Native Americans, and was first populated by European settlers in the 17th century.

The first settler of the island was William Black, son of Black Will who was a freed slave from Kittery, Maine. William sold the land his father had left him in the Upper Parish of Kittery and settled permanently on Bailey's Island. Because of this, the island became known as Will's Island.

The story goes that in 1742, Reverend Timothy Bailey may have bought Will's Island for one pound of tobacco and a gallon of rum from William Black. In another variation of the story, the minister's wife liked the island and so the Baileys bribed municipal officials to find a flaw in Will's title to the island and award it to them. In any event, after Timothy Bailey and his wife took possession of the island, William Black left to live on Orr's Island. From then on, the island was known as Bailey Island.

The Casco Bay water just off Bailey Island was the site of Maine’s only fatal shark attack in recorded history. A 63 year-old woman from New York City was fatally mauled by a confirmed Great White shark while swimming with her 27 year-old daughter.

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailey_Island_(Maine)

William Barr

William Barr

William Pelham Barr (born May 23, 1950) is an American attorney and the 77th and 85th United States Attorney General. Barr's second stint in the post began in February 2019 during the Donald Trump administration. He previously served as the 77th Attorney General from 1991 to 1993 during the George H. W. Bush administration.

From 1973 to 1977, Barr was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency during his schooling years. He then served as a law clerk to judge Malcolm Richard Wilkey. In the 1980s, Barr worked for the law firm Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge, sandwiching a year's work in the White House of the Ronald Reagan administration dealing with legal policies. Before becoming Attorney General in 1991, Barr held numerous other posts within the Department of Justice, including leading the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) and serving as Deputy Attorney General. From 1994 to 2008, Barr did corporate legal work for GTE and its successor company Verizon Communications, which made him a multimillionaire. From 2009 to 2018, Barr served on the board of directors for Time Warner.

Barr is a longtime proponent of the unitary executive theory of nearly unfettered presidential authority over the executive branch of the U.S. government.  In 1989, Barr, as the head of the OLC, justified the U.S. invasion of Panama to arrest Manuel Noriega. As deputy attorney general, Barr authorized an FBI operation in 1991 which freed hostages at the Talladega federal prison. An influential advocate for tougher criminal justice policies, Barr as attorney general in 1992 authored the report The Case for More Incarceration, where he argued for an increase in the United States incarceration rate.  Under Barr's advice, President George H. W. Bush in 1992 pardoned six officials involved in the Iran–Contra affair.

Barr became attorney general for the second time in 2019. During his ongoing term, he has received criticism from some for his handling of several challenges, including his mischaracterized summary and selective redaction of the Mueller report, interventions in the guilty convictions and sentences of former advisors to President Trump, Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, and allegations of political interference in the removal of Geoffrey Berman from his Southern District of New York attorney position

Barr was born in New York City in 1950. His father, Donald Barr, taught English literature at Columbia University before becoming headmaster of the Dalton School in Manhattan and later the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York, both members of the Ivy Preparatory School League. Barr's mother, Mary Margaret (née Ahern), also taught at Columbia.  Barr's father was Jewish and raised in Judaism but later converted to Christianity and joined the Catholic Church. His mother is of Irish ancestry. Barr was raised as a Catholic.  Barr was the second of four sons, and his younger brother Stephen Barr is a professor of physics at the University of Delaware. 

Barr grew up on New York City's Upper West Side. As a child he attended a Catholic grammar school, Corpus Christi School, and then the non-sectarian Horace Mann School. After high school, he attended Columbia University, where he majored in government and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1971. He did two additional years of graduate study at Columbia, receiving an Master of Arts in government and Chinese studies in 1973. While at Columbia, Barr opposed anti-Vietnam War occupation protests by students on campus. 

Barr moved to Washington, D.C., to work as an intelligence analyst for the CIA while taking evening classes at George Washington University Law School, graduating in 1977 with a Juris Doctor with highest honors 

Reference

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