Cuba

General Info:

Cuba is a tropical island located in the northern Caribbean.  The

people are a mix of aboriginal, African and Spanish descent.

Capital: 

Havana

Famous Goods: 

cigars (ex. Cohiba)

rum (ex. Havana Club)

coffee

Famous Sport:

baseball

Famous Music:

song “Guantanamera” (means: "girl from Guantanamo")

salsa

rumba

mambo

Famous People: 

Fidel Castro - former leader of Cuba who came to power in 1959 as a result of the Cuban Revolution; his rebel forces overthrew Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship.  He is barely alive right now, and his brother Raul Castro has taken over.

Che Guevera - from Argentina, and was a proponent of Marxism/Socialism/Communism and wrote a manual on guerrilla warfare.  He helped Fidel Castro during the Cuban Revolution.  He took a motorcycle journey across South America.  He was captured and executed in Bolivia.

Jose Marti - Cuban poet and nationalist hero during the late 1800’s who fought for Cuba’s independence from Spain.

Politics To Know:

Communist country since 1959

Cuban exiles - many Cubans have tried to escape Cuba via makeshift rafts to Miami

Bay of Pigs invasion (1961) - US’s unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Castro’s government

Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) - Soviet Union placed secret missiles in Cuba pointed toward the US as there was speculation that the US was going to invade Cuba.  It ended 2 weeks later.

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base - been used by the US navy for more than 100 years.  It is used as a military detention camp.  President Obama announced that he intends to shut down the prison because of human rights issues. 

Theocracy, Monarchy, Dictatorship, Socialism, Marxism, Communism etc etc

Theocracy:
A government which claims to be immediately directed by God, and divinely blessed.

Monarchy:
A government that has a single person who is generally considered the ruler by the title and birthright.

Dictatorship:
Generic term used to describe any government controlled by a single individual and giving the people little or no individual freedom.

Marxism:
Marxism advocates the "workers" (Proletariats and petite-bourgeoisie) rise up and overthrow businesses and government and take control themselves.

Socialism and Democracy:
Limited government interference in business activity, (as opposed to the above) but more than in capitalism.

Socialism and Communism:
Severe government interference in economics, but not absolute. Centralized planning by the government, ONE PARTY rule, and stresses that there should be only one class of people.

Fascism:
Always has one class of citizens that is considered superior (good) to another (bad) based upon race, creed or origin. It is possible to be both a republic and a fascist state. The preferred class lives in a republic while the oppressed class lives in a fascist state.

Books we should know

"It was the best of times, it was the "blurst" of times!? You stupid monkey!!"

A few world-famous and timeless books everyone should know, add to the list in the comments:

A Tale of Two Cities:
- This has the famous opening line "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."
- takes place during the French Revolution
- written by Charles Dickens in 1859

The Picture of Dorian Gray:
- often mistakingly called The Portrait of Dorian Gray
- written by Oscar Wilde (his only published novel)
- Dorian wishes his own self-portrait ages instead of him, it comes true but the portrait ages and becomes more ugly as Dorian spends his longevity ruining other people's lives to fulfill his own personal desires.

1984:
- releasted in 1949 by George Orwell
- basically brought government over-control to people's minds. Many of the books ideas are all a reality today.
- takes place in fictional state of Oceania (and more directly in London)
- if you've seen (or read) V for Vendetta, you pretty much get the idea, they're similar in many ways

Moby Dick:
- "Call me Ishmael" is famous opening line by the books narrator
- The ship is called the Pequod
- Muscle-bound, tattooed harpooner is named Queequeg
- Ship's captain is the famous Captain Ahab, obsessed with taking revenge on a white whale that sunk his boat and bit off his leg.

War and Peace:
- by Leo Tolstoy in 1865-1869
- historical novel that chronicles the tumultuous events in Russia during the Napoleonic war in the early nineteenth century.
- famous for being an un-novelly novel, part historical, part fictional
- was a realistic commentary on how life in general was changing (kind of like our current world financial meltdown)

European Capital Cities

countries and cities. i dunno most of 'em. but i'd like to.

La mango estis bonega!

"Translation: The meal was splendid!"

I've always been fascinated with the language of Esperanto, not because I know it, but because it was used on "Red Dwarf" (my favourite British sci-fi sitcom) as a language that Rimmer was trying to learn for no reason other than just to learn it.

Basically, and this is real, some guy invented a language (that, to me sounds like Spanish) to be a universal language and bring unity to the planet Earth. It never took off but the language still exists and even has hundreds of thousands of people that speak it. Click on "Esperanto" above to read a quick blurb on Wikipedia about it.

NASA - Not Another Screw-up Again!

Science: NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) had a big fuck-up last Tuesday when a satellite that was going to monitor global warming didn't quite make it off the planet. The top part of the rocket carrying the payload (aka - the satellite) failed to detach from the booster rocket (which pushes the rocket from launch, then falls off into the ocean). NASA has been bitching for years that Bush cut their funds so much they barely have enough to keep up with the advancing technology of Russia, China, India, which are all racing to have major space programs (China recently had their first manned orbit-and-return). Obama plans to land man on the moon again by 2020 but if NASA keeps looking like idiots, who knows where their funding might end up.