THE UNFORGETTABLE DREAM GAMES 

The Athens Olympics of 2004 was one of the best Olympics ever made, and as the President of the IOC said was the Unforgettable Dream Games. The Athens Olympics create a new world record that of the Volunteers ,160.000 of Olympic Volunteers from all over the world came to Athens and help in many fronts during and before the Games.

The Olympic Summer Games 2004 took place from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens. After the first Olympic Games of the modern era 1896 and the unofficial matches between 1906, it was the second time Athens hosted the Olympic Games.

Athens was voted as the hosting capital of the 2004 Olympics in 1997 , among other countries that had participated in the International Olympic Committee session of 1997, that was held in Lausanne, was Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Stockholm, and Rome. During this time the IOC president was Juan Antonio Samaranch and the general administration of the Athens Olympics had Gianna Angelopoulou-Daskalaki. The preparations and constructions of new stadiums, roads, the Olympic Village the transformation of the OAKA roof from the famous Spanish architect Calatrava etc started in the year 2000 . Among the largest construction projects in Athens was the Athens metro, the Attica highway, the new Airport in Spata and the tram. Many have thought that Athens wont be ready for the Olympics of 2004 but the enormous and well organised efforts of the Greek governments both of the PASOK and Nea Demokratia managed Athens to be ready at the right time for one of the best organised games in the History of the Olympic games. On 10 August 2004, the Tuesday before the opening, was a ticket sales record with 88,317 tickets. The Opening ceremony was a dream the Athens Olympic stadium was packed with more then 80000 audients. The president of the Greek republic Stefanos Stefanopoulos walked to the stage with Gianna Angelopoulou-Daskalaki and a small child to announce the beginning of the XXVIII Olympiad. 

Athens Olympic Volunteers: During the Athens Olympics was an enormous number of people who applied as volunteers (160.000) finaly was chosen 60000. All volunteers who accepted the offers made to them by ATHENS 2004 attended training programmes.
These programmes were specially designed to address the requirements of the Games, but also to provide participants with broader knowledge and practical experience

Olympic 2004 Mascots: Athena and Phoebos were the mascots of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens. They represent the Greek goddess of wisdom Athena and the god of the Sun and music Apollo, who one of its most common nicknames was Phoebus. They were assisted by the Greek designer Spyros Gogos.
The two mascots were twins and symbolize brotherhood among all participants of the games. The blue and orange colours of them represent the Greek sea and the Greek sun.

2004 Olympic Venues: Aquatics Archery Athletics Badminton Baseball Basketball Boxing Canoeing Cycling Equestrian Fencing Football Gymnastics Handball Hockey Judo Modern pentathlon Rowing Sailing Shooting Softball Table Tennis Taekwondo Tennis Triathlon Volleyball Weightlifting Wrestling

28th Olympiad Athens 2004 Olympic Games August 13th-29th, 2004 Opening Ceremony: Friday, August 13th, 2004 Closing Ceremony: Sunday, August 29th, 2004

12th Paralympic Games Athens 2004 September 17th-28th, 2004
For the first time, the Olympic and Paralympics summer Games were organised by a single Organising Committee after the signing of the IOC – IPC Cooperation Agreement.

The Olympic Torch relay The Olympic Torch travel along the following countries before return to Athens ,it will start at Ancient Olympia in Greece (March 24th, 2004) , Sydney (June 4th) , Melbourne (June 5th) , Tokyo (June 6th) , Seoul (June 7th) , Beijing (June 8th) , Delhi (June 10th) , Cairo (June 11th) , Cape Town (June 12th) , Rio de Janeiro (June 13th) , Mexico City (June 15th) , Los Angeles (June 16th) , St. Louis (June 17th) , Atlanta (June 18th) , New York (June 19th) , Montreal (June 20th) , Antwerp , Brussels (June 22nd) , Amsterdam (June 23rd) , Geneva (June 24th) , Lausanne (June 24th) , Paris (June 25th) , London (June 26th) , Barcelona (June 27th) , Rome (June 28th) , Munich (June 29th) , Berlin (June 30th) , Stockholm (July 1st) , Helsinki (July 2nd) , Moscow (July 3rd) , Kiev (July 5th) , Istanbul (July 6th) , Sofia (July 7th) , Nicosia (July 8th).

                       OLYMPICS 2004 MEDALS COUNT TOP TEN COUNTRIES 

Digital TV in the UK

What is Digital TV?

Digital TV offers a far wider choice of TV viewing with lots of extra channels, and uses digital technology to reduce the interference that you may experience on analogue TV (the five channels you get via your standard TV aerial).

Digital TV also offers other benefits, such as a greater selection of wide-screen programming, and on-screen electronic programmed guide, interactive services.

What are the Digital TV options?

Freeview is received through your standard TV aerial. All channels are free to watch, there's no installation or subscription cost, no contract, and no engineer needs to visit.

Freeview offers around 40 TV channels and 25 radio stations - the channel line-up is more limited than Sky Digital.

To get Freeview, you either need to buy a special Freeview set-top box and connect it to your existing TV set, or consider getting a new TV that has a built-in Freeview receiver.

In the UK, the digital satellite TV leader is Sky Digital. Sky offers the largest range of channels around, with channels including Sky One, GOLD, Comedy Central, lots of Sky Movies channels and an unrivalled range of sport, music and kids channels.

To get Sky, you sign up on-line, and arrange for a Sky installer to install a satellite dish and hook up a digibox to your existing TV. If you're considering Sky, we recommend you look at Sky+, the digital recorder that will change the way you watch TV...

Offer: Sky Digital is offering the following package: Over 200 digital TV channels, Broadband Internet access (with a free router) and free UK evening and weekend land-line phone calls... all this from just £18 a month. An installation fee of between £30 and £60 may apply, when ordered on-line.

If you live in a part of the UK that's covered by cable TV operator Virgin Media, they may be able to provide you with a cable TV package, as well as home phone and high-speed Internet access. They will install a set-top box and an engineer will call to connect it to their fibre-optic cable.

BT Vision offers free-view TV channels, supports live pause of TV shows, and comes with up to 80 hours of recording time. It also can download TV content over a Broadband Internet connection - for content like movies, TV shows, kids programming and sporting events.

Special box that offers the free-view channels, plus a small selection of TV content that downloads overnight onto the built-in hard-disk. Box supports 100 hours of content downloaded and refreshed every seven days. Shows supplied from GOLD, Comedy Central, Home (formerly UKTV Style), CBS and Warner TV.

You need to be in a Freeview coverage area. The special Top Up TV Anytime set-top box costs from £40, and the subscription fee is £11.99 a month.

TalkTalk TV. Formerly known as Tiscali TV or Homechoice, this service is available in parts of the UK including London, Birmingham and Liverpool, and offers over 70 TV channels via your phone line.

The service also offers 1500 on-demand movies, over 5000 music videos, hundreds of TV series, and a TV rewind service.

8-Year-Old Wins $500,000 at Poker? 

Can He Keep It? 

Supposedly an 8-year-old computer genius in India has won approximately $500,000 in an on-line poker tournament, but obviously there are some legal issues with a boy that age winning at on-line poker. The gambling site (undetermined) refused to pay out the winnings, so now the case is in a New Delhi court.

The boy's name is Aashish Nanak, who began using computers at age 3 to keep busy while his mother worked cleaning a local hotel.

“Aash has always loved the Internet and computers he started his own web pages when he was only four years old, he is a very clever boy,” Mrs. Nanak said.

Obviously the poker site is saying he wasn't old enough to play poker, but Aashish apparently played under his uncle's account and family lawyers are arguing that it doesn't say anywhere on the site that that isn't allowed. Apparently the boy had a number of smaller winnings paid into a legitimate on-line account set up for him by his uncle.

Summaries of Edgar Allan Poe Stories

The following brief summaries are designed to quickly give you an idea of what each story is about. Find something of interest then take a trip into Poe's imagination...

"Berenice"

Horror story about teeth 

This is a really creepy story with a gruesome ending. I don't want to give too much away. If you like horror stories, read this one. You'll shudder after you finish it...

"There came a light tap at the library door, and pale as the tenant of a tomb, a menial entered upon tiptoe. His looks were wild with terror, and he spoke to me in a voice tremulous, husky, and very low..."

Read "Berenice"

"The Black Cat"
Horror story about a cat 

A drunk man kills his cat and it comes back to haunt him. In Poe's usual style, the narrator of the story is the killer and we see things through his eyes. Quite a horrific tale. 

Read "The Black Cat"

"The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar"
Talking with a dead man 

A man dying from tuberculosis asks his friend, the narrator of the story, to hypnotize him just before death. The event is witnessed by two doctors and a medical student. The results are interesting to say the least. 

 Read "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar"

"The Man of the Crowd"
 How to follow someone

A man is sitting in a coffee shop, watching all of the different kinds of people moving through the streets. A particluar old man catches his attention and he decides to follow him to learn more about him...

This story really makes you think. Its a story that you'll want to read several times.

Read "The Man of the Crowd" 

Biography of Edgar Allan Poe

This appears to be an engraving of a younger looking Poe, unknown origin.

This is a short biography. I've tried to compose one short enough to read in a single sitting.

Poe's Childhood

Edgar Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809. That makes him Capricorn, on the cusp of Aquarius. His parents were David and Elizabeth Poe. David was born in Baltimore on July 18, 1784. Elizabeth Arnold came to the U.S. from England in 1796 and married David Poe after her first husband died in 1805. They had three children, Henry, Edgar, and Rosalie.


Elizabeth Poe died in 1811, when Edgar was 2 years old. She had separated from her husband and had taken her three kids with her. Henry went to live with his grandparents while Edgar was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. John Allan and Rosalie was taken in by another family. John Allan was a successful merchant, so Edgar grew up in good surroundings and went to good schools.


When Poe was 6, he went to school in England for 5 years. He learned Latin and French, as well as math and history. He later returned to school in America and continued his studies. Edgar Allan went to the University of Virginia in 1826. He was 17. Even though John Allan had plenty of money, he only gave Edgar about a third of what he needed. Although Edgar had done well in Latin and French, he started to drink heavily and quickly became in debt. He had to quit school less than a year later.


Poe in the Army


Edgar Allan had no money, no job skills, and had been shunned by John Allan. Edgar went to Boston and joined the U.S. Army in 1827. He was 18. He did reasonably well in the Army and attained the rank of sergeant major. In 1829, Mrs. Allan died and John Allan tried to be friendly towards Edgar and signed Edgar's application to West Point.


While waiting to enter West Point, Edgar lived with his grandmother and his aunt, Mrs. Clemm. Also living there was his brother, Henry, and young cousin, Virginia. In 1830, Edgar Allan entered West Point as a cadet. He didn't stay long because John Allan refused to send him any money. It is thought that Edgar purposely broke the rules and ignored his duties so he would be dismissed.


A Struggling Writer


In 1831, Edgar Allan Poe went to New York City where he had some of his poetry published. He submitted stories to a number of magazines and they were all rejected. Poe had no friends, no job, and was in financial trouble. He sent a letter to John Allan begging for help but none came. John Allan died in 1834 and did not mention Edgar in his will.


In 1835, Edgar finally got a job as an editor of a newspaper because of a contest he won with his story, "The Manuscript Found in a Bottle". Edgar missed Mrs. Clemm and Virginia and brought them to Richmond to live with him. In 1836, Edgar married his cousin, Virginia. He was 27 and she was 13. Many sources say Virginia was 14, but this is incorrect. Virginia Clemm was born on August 22, 1822. They were married before her 14th birthday, in May of 1836. In case you didn't figure it out already, Virginia was Virgo.


As the editor for the Southern Literary Messenger, Poe successfully managed the paper and increased its circulation from 500 to 3500 copies. Despite this, Poe left the paper in early 1836, complaining of the poor salary. In 1837, Edgar went to New York. He wrote "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" but he could not find any financial success. He moved to Philadelphia in 1838 where he wrote "Ligeia" and "The Haunted Palace". His first volume of short stories, "Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque" was published in 1839. Poe received the copyright and 20 copies of the book, but no money.


Sometime in 1840, Edgar Poe joined George R. Graham as an editor for Graham's Magazine. During the two years that Poe worked for Graham's, he published his first detective story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and challenged readers to send in cryptograms, which he always solved. During the time Poe was editor, the circulation of the magazine rose from 5000 to 35,000 copies. Poe left Graham's in 1842 because he wanted to start his own magazine.


Poe found himself without a regular job once again. He tried to start a magazine called The Stylus and failed. In 1843, he published some booklets containing a few of his short stories but they didn't sell well enough. He won a hundred dollars for his story, "The Gold Bug" and sold a few other stories to magazines but he barely had enough money to support his family. Often, Mrs. Clemm had to contribute financially. In 1844, Poe moved back to New York. Even though "The Gold Bug" had a circulation of around 300,000 copies, he could barely make a living.


In 1845, Edgar Poe became an editor at The Broadway Journal. A year later, the Journal ran out of money and Poe was out of a job again. He and his family moved to a small cottage near what is now East 192nd Street. Virginia's health was fading away and Edgar was deeply distressed by it. Virginia died in 1847, 10 days after Edgar's birthday. After losing his wife, Poe collapsed from stress but gradually returned to health later that year.


Final Days


In June of 1849, Poe left New York and went to Philadelphia, where he visited his friend John Sartain. Poe left Philadelphia in July and came to Richmond. He stayed at the Swan Tavern Hotel but joined "The Sons of Temperance" in an effort to stop drinking. He renewed a boyhood romance with Sarah Royster Shelton and planned to marry her in October.


On September 27, Poe left Richmond for New York. He went to Philadelphia and stayed with a friend named James P. Moss. On September 30, he meant to go to New York but supposedly took the wrong train to Baltimore. On October 3, Poe was found at Gunner's Hall, a public house at 44 East Lombard Street, and was taken to the hospital. He lapsed in and out of consciousness but was never able to explain exactly what happened to him. Edgar Allan Poe died in the hospital on Sunday, October 7, 1849.


The mystery surrounding Poe's death has led to many myths and urban legends. The reality is that no one knows for sure what happened during the last few days of his life. Did Poe die from alcoholism? Was he mugged? Did he have rabies? A more detailed exploration of Poe's death can be found here.