The path to Citizenship

Monday, February 28, 2011

RE: Hedy Lamarr - a naturalized citizen - So should Miki

From: Miki

Rob does not get Hedy....just get '-marred'...and it shows in his envy over yet another waitress who spent time with me...over him...no surprises there!!

_________

From: Rob

If Miki had a snowball's chance in hell of getting a girl like Hedy Lamarr perhaps he'd have become a U.S. citizen long ago… (we all remember Miki's pretend waitress kiss incident in Massachusetts… he couldn't even get a kiss from a lowly service wench in a dump bar).

Hedy Lamarr

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Hedy Lamarr (November 9, 1913 â€" January 19, 2000) was an actress and communications technology innovator. She was known for her great beauty on camera, and also for co-inventing the first form of spread spectrum, a key to modern wireless communication.

Life

Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria, on November 9, 1913, and died in 2000 in Altamonte Springs, Florida (near Orlando, Orange County, Florida) of natural causes at the age of 86.

While married to her first husband, Friedrich Mandl, aka Fritz Mandl, an arms manufacturer, she socialized with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. She also became educated technically in his trade. Mandl was obsessed with his wife and never let her out of his sight. She hated him and his Nazi friends and finally escaped to London by drugging him and the French maid he had hired to spy on her. Ironically, Mandl was from a Jewish background. Whether the Nazis ever knew about Mandl's and Lamarr's Jewish origins has been debated by historians; Friedrich Mandl came from an extremely assimilated family and it appears that he overtly hid his Jewish origins, and he converted to Christianity under evident pressure. Many also say that Lamarr's co-invention of spread spectrum as a potential World War II military application was sparked by her desire to do anything in her power to help see Nazism defeated.

She met Louis B. Mayer in London. He hired her and changed her name to Hedy Lamarr, the surname in homage to a famously beautiful film star of the silent era, Barbara LaMarr, who had died of a drug overdose in 1926. She had already appeared in several European films, including Ecstasy (1933), in which she played a love-hungry young wife of an indifferent old husband. Closeups of her face in passion, and long shots of her running nude through the woods, gave the film notoriety. She also gained notoriety as one of the first actresses to bare her breasts in a major film. Mandl bought up as many copies of the film as he could possibly find, as he objected to her nudity, as well as "the expression on her face."

In Hollywood, she appeared in many films, usually cast as glamorous and seductive, including Algiers (1938), White Cargo, and Tortilla Flat (both 1942), based on the novel by John Steinbeck. In 1941 she was cast alongside two other Hollywood beauties Lana Turner and Judy Garland in a musical extravaganza Ziegfeld Girl (1941), Her biggest success came in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah (1949) with Victor Mature as the Biblical strongman. Unfortunately, she was more used for her stunning exotic beauty than her ability as an actress.

Lamarr became a naturalized citizen of the United States on April 10, 1953.

Frequency-hopped spread spectrum invention

Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil received U.S. patent #2,292,387 for their Secret Communication System. This early version of frequency hopping used a piano roll to change between 88 frequencies and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam. The patent was little-known until recently because Lamarr applied for it under her then-married name of Hedy Kiesler Markey. Neither Lamarr nor Antheil made any money from the patent. It had expired by the time the U.S. military barely began using this system after 1962. It took electronics technology a long time to catch up with the concept.

Lamarr's frequency-hopping idea served as the basis for modern spread-spectrum communication technology used in devices ranging from cordless telephones to WiFi Internet connections. In 1997, the two of them received an EFF Pioneer Award for the invention.

Lamarr wanted to join the National Inventors Council but she was told that she could better help the war effort by using her celebrity status to sell War Bonds. She once raised $7,000,000 at just one event.

In 2003, the Boeing corporation ran a series of recruitment ads featuring Hedy Lamarr as a woman of science. No reference to her film career was made in the ads.

In 2005, the first Inventor's Day in German-speaking countries was held in her honor on November 9, on what would have been her 92nd birthday.

Hedy Lamarr - a naturalized citizen - So should Miki

Hedy Lamarr


503 Views
282 Views 264 Views
Hedy Lamarr (November 9, 1913 â€" January 19, 2000) was an actress and communications technology innovator. She was known for her great beauty on camera, and also for co-inventing the first form of spread spectrum, a key to modern wireless communication.

Life

Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria, on November 9, 1913, and died in 2000 in Altamonte Springs, Florida (near Orlando, Orange County, Florida) of natural causes at the age of 86.

While married to her first husband, Friedrich Mandl, aka Fritz Mandl, an arms manufacturer, she socialized with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. She also became educated technically in his trade. Mandl was obsessed with his wife and never let her out of his sight. She hated him and his Nazi friends and finally escaped to London by drugging him and the French maid he had hired to spy on her. Ironically, Mandl was from a Jewish background. Whether the Nazis ever knew about Mandl's and Lamarr's Jewish origins has been debated by historians; Friedrich Mandl came from an extremely assimilated family and it appears that he overtly hid his Jewish origins, and he converted to Christianity under evident pressure. Many also say that Lamarr's co-invention of spread spectrum as a potential World War II military application was sparked by her desire to do anything in her power to help see Nazism defeated.

She met Louis B. Mayer in London. He hired her and changed her name to Hedy Lamarr, the surname in homage to a famously beautiful film star of the silent era, Barbara LaMarr, who had died of a drug overdose in 1926. She had already appeared in several European films, including Ecstasy (1933), in which she played a love-hungry young wife of an indifferent old husband. Closeups of her face in passion, and long shots of her running nude through the woods, gave the film notoriety. She also gained notoriety as one of the first actresses to bare her breasts in a major film. Mandl bought up as many copies of the film as he could possibly find, as he objected to her nudity, as well as "the expression on her face."

In Hollywood, she appeared in many films, usually cast as glamorous and seductive, including Algiers (1938), White Cargo, and Tortilla Flat (both 1942), based on the novel by John Steinbeck. In 1941 she was cast alongside two other Hollywood beauties Lana Turner and Judy Garland in a musical extravaganza Ziegfeld Girl (1941), Her biggest success came in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah (1949) with Victor Mature as the Biblical strongman. Unfortunately, she was more used for her stunning exotic beauty than her ability as an actress.

Lamarr became a naturalized citizen of the United States on April 10, 1953.

Frequency-hopped spread spectrum invention

Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil received U.S. patent #2,292,387 for their Secret Communication System. This early version of frequency hopping used a piano roll to change between 88 frequencies and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam. The patent was little-known until recently because Lamarr applied for it under her then-married name of Hedy Kiesler Markey. Neither Lamarr nor Antheil made any money from the patent. It had expired by the time the U.S. military barely began using this system after 1962. It took electronics technology a long time to catch up with the concept.

Lamarr's frequency-hopping idea served as the basis for modern spread-spectrum communication technology used in devices ranging from cordless telephones to WiFi Internet connections. In 1997, the two of them received an EFF Pioneer Award for the invention.

Lamarr wanted to join the National Inventors Council but she was told that she could better help the war effort by using her celebrity status to sell War Bonds. She once raised $7,000,000 at just one event.

In 2003, the Boeing corporation ran a series of recruitment ads featuring Hedy Lamarr as a woman of science. No reference to her film career was made in the ads.

In 2005, the first Inventor's Day in German-speaking countries was held in her honor on November 9, on what would have been her 92nd birthday.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Canadian Citizenship

Canadian Citizenship

October 19, 2009 

Picture this: You're hitch-hiking in Winnipeg in July. Which means it's freezing out, so you hop in without properly addressing the situation. About a half mile down the road, you're perturbed when you realize the driver is a crazy murderer and before you can say "Stop what you're doing, eh!" you are impaled on the blade of his hockey stick. That my friends, is a normal day in Canada.



Now why would anyone want to become a citizen of this backwards "country?" This is one of the great remaining mysteries of the world –- right up there with Stonehenge, crop circles, and why all Brazilian women are 10's.



Well, I have a plan. If enough of us Uncle Sam lovin', red white and blue bleedin' patriots take the Canadian citizenship test, we can vote to make it our fifty-first state and dissolve it once and for all. With that in mind, here's a cheat sheet to the Canadian citizenship test.


The Official Canadian Citizenship Test for Canadian Citzenship


1) Do you want to be a Canadian?


2) Really?


3) Which is more fun?


eh) Watching hockey

b) Having Sex


4) Alex Trebek is ________


eh) Canadian

b) Creepy

c) Canadian and Creepy


5) Which country do you most wish you were really a citizen of?


eh) U.S.A.

b) All of the above


6) Moose are __________


eh) A National Treasure

b) Good eats

c) Proctoring this test


7) The colors of the Canadian Flag are:


eh) Red and White

b) Maple Syrup and Mountie

c) Cold


8) Canada's Biggest Export is:


eh) Petroleum

b) Teeth

c) Mustachioed Game Show Hosts


9) Boxing Day is:


eh) A Holiday celebrated the day after Christmas

b) A day devoted to punching people? The sounds awesome!


10) If you answered "yes" to questions 1 and 2, there is still time to back out. Just get up and walk away and no will be the wiser.

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/how_i_met_your_mother/community/barney_blog/index.php

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Bela Lugosi

Lugosi immigrated to the United States in 1921 and on June 26, 1931 became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Miki should emulate Bela Lugosi and become a naturalized citizen of the United States!

Bela Lugosi

Bela Lugosi was the stage name of actor Bela Ferenc DezsÅ' Blaskó (October 20, 1882August 16, 1956). He was born in Lugos, Hungary, at the time part of Austria-Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania), the youngest of four children of a baker. The blue-eyed actor is best known for his portrayal of Dracula in the American Broadway stage production, and subsequent film, of Bram Stoker's classic vampire story.

Monday, February 14, 2011

United States Nationality Law

This article will aid you in your journey to become a Naturalized U.S. Citizen

The United States flag

Article I, section 8, clause 4 of the United States Constitution expressly gives the United States Congress the power to establish a uniform rule of naturalization. The Immigration and Naturalization Act sets forth the legal requirements for the acquisition of, and divestiture from, citizenship of the United States. The requirements have become more explicit since the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, with the most recent changes to statutory law having been made by the United States Congress in 2001.

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Rights and Responsibilities of U.S. Citizens

[edit] Rights of citizens

Adult citizens of the United States who are residents of one of the 50 states have the right to participate in the political system of the United States, as well as their state and local governments (with most states having restrictions on voting by persons convicted of felonies, and a federal constitutional prohibition on naturalized persons running for President and Vice President of the United States), to be represented and protected abroad by the United States (through U.S. embassies and consulates), and to reside in the United States and certain territories without any immigration requirements.

[edit] Responsibilities of citizens

Some[1] U.S. citizens have the obligation to serve in a jury, if selected and legally qualified. Citizens are also required (under the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code) to pay taxes on their total income from all sources worldwide, including income earned abroad while residing abroad. Under certain circumstances, however, U.S. citizens living and working abroad may be able to reduce or eliminate their U.S. federal income tax via the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion and/or the Foreign Tax Credit.[2] U.S. taxes payable may be alternatively reduced by credits for foreign income taxes regardless of the length of stay abroad. The United States Government also insists that U.S. citizens travel into and out of the United States on a U.S. passport, regardless of any other nationality they may possess.

Male U.S. citizens (including those living permanently abroad and/or with dual U.S./other citizenship) are required to register with the Selective Service System at age 18 for possible conscription into the armed forces. Although no one has been drafted in the U.S. since 1973, draft registration continues for possible reinstatement on some future date.[3]

In the Oath of Citizenship, immigrants becoming naturalized U.S. citizens swear that when required by law they will bear arms on behalf of the United States, will perform noncombatant service in the U.S. Armed Forces, and will perform work of national importance under civilian direction. In some cases, the USCIS allows the oath to be taken without the clauses regarding the first two of these three sworn commitments.[4]

[edit] Acquisition of citizenship

There are various ways a person can acquire United States citizenship, either at birth or later on in life.

[edit] Naturalization

A judge swears in a new citizen. New York, 1910

A person who was not born a U.S. citizen may acquire U.S. citizenship through a process known as naturalization.

[edit] Eligibility for naturalization

To become a naturalized United States citizen, one must be at least eighteen years of age at the time of filing, a legal permanent resident of the United States, and have had a status of a legal permanent resident in the United States for five years less 90 days before they apply (this requirement is reduced to three years less 90 days if they (a) acquired legal permanent resident status, (b) have been married to and living with a citizen for the past three years and (c) the spouse has been a U.S. citizen for at least three years prior to the applicant applying for naturalization.) They must have been physically present for at least 30 months of 60 months prior to the date of filing their application. Also during those 60 months if the legal permanent resident was outside of the U.S. for a continuous period of 6 months or more they are disqualified from naturalizing (certain exceptions apply for those continuous periods of six months to 1 year). They must be a "person of good moral character", and must pass a test on United States history and government[9][10] Most applicants must also have a working knowledge of the English language.[9] There are exceptions, introduced in 1990, for long-resident older applicants and those with mental or physical disabilities.[11][12]

[edit] Citizenship test

Applicants for citizenship are asked ten questions, and must answer at least six with the expected answers. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has published a list of 100 sample questions (with the answers that should be given when taking the test), from which the questions asked are always drawn. The full list of questions is in the "A Guide to Naturalization," available for free from the USCIS.[13]

[edit] New naturalization test and interview

There is a new naturalization test that is being used for all N-400 applications filed on or after October 1, 2008.[14] If the applicant filed the N-400 application before October 1, 2008 then the applicant may choose to take the new test or the old test. The new test examines the applicant's knowledge of American society and the English language. Sample questions and answers are published by the USCIS in English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.[15]

Besides passing the citizenship test: citizenship applicants must also satisfy other specific requirements of naturalization to successfully obtain U.S. citizenship.[16]

An applicant will also be required to submit to an in-person interview.

[edit] Eligibility for public office

A person who becomes a U.S. citizen through naturalization is not considered a natural born citizen. Consequently, naturalized U.S. citizens are not eligible to become President of the United States or Vice President of the United States, which would ordinarily be the case as established by the Presidential Succession Act. For example, though the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of Labor are tenth and eleventh in the presidential line of succession, Elaine Chao and Carlos Gutierrez (respectively former U.S. Secretaries of Labor and Commerce under President George W. Bush) would have been unable to succeed to the presidency because they became U.S. citizens through naturalization. The highest-ranking naturalized citizens to have been excluded from the Presidential Line of Succession were Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright, each of whom would have been fourth in line as Secretary of State had they been natural born citizens.

Whether this restriction applies to children born to non-U.S. citizens but adopted as minors by U.S. citizens is a matter of some debate, since the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 is ambiguous as to whether acquisition of citizenship by that route is to be regarded as naturalized or natural-born. Those who argue that the restriction does not apply point out that the child automatically becomes a citizen even though violating every single requirement of eligibility for naturalization, and thus the case falls closer to the situation of birth abroad to U.S. citizens than to naturalization. This interpretation is in concert with the wording of the Naturalization Act of 1790, that "the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens", which does not draw a distinction between biological children and adopted children, even though the process of adoption was certainly well known at the time.

Some argue that the phrase "natural born citizen" describes a category of citizenship distinct from that described by the phrase "U.S. Citizen" in Article Two of the United States Constitution, and this was discussed during the constitutional convention of 1787.[17] While it is true that "natural born citizen" is not defined anywhere within the text of the Constitution and that the Constitution makes use of the phrase "citizen" and "natural born citizen," Supreme Court Decisions from United States v. Wong Kim Ark to the present have considered the distinction to be between natural-born and naturalized citizenship.

Most legal scholars believe that the phrase "natural born citizen" is derived from the works of William Blackstone and depends on the legal doctrine of Jus soli. For example, in her 1988 article in the Yale Law Journal, Jill Pryor wrote, "It is well settled that 'native-born' citizens, those born in the United States, qualify as natural born."[18]

An April 2000 CRS report by the Congressional Research Service, asserts that most constitutional scholars interpret the phrase "natural born citizen" as including citizens born outside the United States to parents who are U.S. citizens under the "natural born" requirement.[19]

Chester Arthur (born of an American mother and Irish father, purported birthplace of Canada) was sworn in as President, however his status as a "Natural born citizen" was challenged because he was born with British citizenship [20] (therefore not jus sanguinis) and it is contended, on foreign soil (therefore not jus soli). Some argue that those born abroad to U.S. citizens are not eligible to ascend to the Presidency (not jus soli), since an act of the United States Congress such as the Naturalization Act may not overrule the Constitution (see "Natural born citizen" as presidential qualification).[21] Presidential candidates George W. Romney (born in Mexico), Barry Goldwater and John McCain (born in U.S. territories), were never seriously challenged on the basis of their "natural born" citizenship, but no candidate falling under this classification has ever actually become President.

[edit] Dual citizenship

Physicist Albert Einstein receiving his certificate of American citizenship from Judge Phillip Forman in 1940. He also retained his Swiss citizenship.[23]

Based on the U.S. Department of State regulation on dual citizenship (7 FAM 1162), the Supreme Court of the United States has stated that dual citizenship is a "status long recognized in the law" and that "a person may have and exercise rights of nationality in two countries and be subject to the responsibilities of both. The mere fact he asserts the rights of one citizenship does not without more mean that he renounces the other," (Kawakita v. U.S., 343 U.S. 717) (1952). In Schneider v. Rusk 377 U.S. 163 (1964), the US Supreme Court ruled that a naturalized U.S. citizen has the right to return to his native country and to resume his former citizenship, and also to remain a U.S. citizen even if he never returns to the United States.

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) neither defines dual citizenship nor takes a position for it or against it. There has been no prohibition against dual citizenship, but some provisions of the INA and earlier U.S. nationality laws were designed to reduce situations in which dual citizenship exists. Although naturalizing citizens are required to undertake an oath renouncing previous allegiances, the oath has never been enforced to require the actual termination of original citizenship.[24]

Although the U.S. Government does not endorse dual citizenship as a matter of policy, it recognizes the existence of dual citizenship and completely tolerates the maintenance of multiple citizenship by U.S. citizens. In the past, claims of other countries on dual-national U.S. citizens sometimes placed them in situations where their obligations to one country were in conflict with the laws of the other. However, as fewer countries require military service and most base other obligations, such as the payment of taxes, on residence and not citizenship, these conflicts have become less frequent. As a result, there has been a dramatic increase in recent years in the number of people who maintain U.S. citizenship in other countries.

One circumstance where dual citizenship may run counter to expectations of government agencies is in matters of security clearance. Any person granted a Yankee White vetting must be absolutely free of foreign influence, and for other security clearances one of the grounds that may result in a rejected application is an actual or potential conflict of national allegiances.

Mike Myers, not yet a U.S. Citizen? Why not?

The Love Guru sucked, but still, he was good in Shrek.

Mike Myers, whose parents were from England was born in Canada, but now lives here; he is an expatriate. Being an actor gives him an excuse not to hurry up to become a citizen. Miki, you are better than any old actor. You should be a U.S. Citizen.

Michael John "Mike" Myers (born May 25, 1963) is a Canadian actor of British parentage, comedian, screenwriter, and film producer. He was a long-time cast member on the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live in the late 1980s and the early 1990s and starred as the title characters in the films Wayne's World, Austin Powers, the Shrek film series, and The Love Guru.

Myers was born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, son of Eric Myers (1922–1991), an insurance man and World War II veteran of the Royal Engineers and his wife Alice E. Hind (born 1926), an office supervisor and veteran of the Royal Air Force.[1][2] Both of his parents are from Liverpool, England.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Did Albert Einstein ever become a U.S. citizen?

Albert Einstein emigrated to the United States. Say no more! Was he a citizen? I'll bet he would have been if given a chance. Do either of you know?


Genius at play: Albert Einstein in his study at Princeton University in 1931

Genius at play: Albert Einstein in his study at Princeton University in 1931

One day, the story goes, Albert Einstein was playing string quartets with his friend Fritz Kreisler, the great Viennese violinist. Einstein went wrong. "You know, Albert," said Kreisler, "your trouble is that you can't count."

It's a tale told in various permutations. But what's indisputable is that the discoverer of the theory of general relativity was also, in his spare time, an eager violinist. "If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician," he was quoted as saying. "I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music... I get most joy in life out of music."

Now there's a chance to explore the link between music and physics as exemplified by Einstein. The violinist Jack Liebeck, Young British Classical Performer at the Classical Brits 2010, has teamed up with Brian Foster, Professor of Experimental Physics at Oxford University, for The Music of the Spheres, a lecture and recital.

"Brian first heard me play at the Cheltenham Festival," Liebeck recounts. "We got talking and later he invited me to dinner at high table in his Oxford college, where I ended up quizzing him about particle physics for an hour and a half. And he is a keen amateur violinist himself, so I gave him a lesson."

The pair devised Einstein's Universe for the World Year of Physics in 2005; since then they have given presentations to schools and colleges across Britain, supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. But it's only now that they are appearing in a public event in London, at St John's, Smith Square, on 4 February. Foster will speak at 5.15pm; Liebeck will illustrate the lecture with extracts from Bach's solo violin works. The music could work upon the audience's mind in rather a similar way to that upon Einstein.

"He used music to clear his mind while it was twisted up with all these tortuous concepts," Liebeck suggests. Einstein would leave his desk, play his violin or piano for a short time, then return to the study in a more relaxed frame of mind: "It would help him to stand back a little from the problem and crystallise his thinking."

During the lecture Foster explains the activities of CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research), and its Large Hadron Collider in a tunnel 100 metres underground. None of its experiments would have been possible without Einstein's discoveries. Yet, when the great man was due to receive his Nobel Prize in 1922, he was not present at the ceremony. He was in Japan, reportedly performing Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata.

Liebeck, with pianist Katya Apekisheva, will end the evening with a performance of Johannes Brahms's three violin sonatas. Einstein had a special affinity with the first of them, the one in G major. As a student in Switzerland, he heard a performance of it by the violinist Joseph Joachim; afterwards, the scientist set about practising the piece intensively, determined to learn all he could from Joachim.

Einstein often used his fame to meet and befriend musicians he admired. He would play chamber music with them and, though no virtuoso, could usually hold his own. Except for counting, that is: Jelly d'Aranyi, the Hungarian violinist for whom Ravel wrote his celebrated Tzigane, once stopped while playing a string quartet with Einstein and remarked: "Albert, your time is very relative today..."

The American author Jerome Weidman left another beautiful anecdote. As a young man, considering himself tone deaf, he attended with trepidation a musical soirée at the home of a New York philanthropist. He found himself sitting next to Einstein, who asked if he liked Bach. When Weidman admitted he had no ear for music, Einstein whisked him out to their host's study; there, with the aid of a Bing Crosby record and other music, culminating with Bach, the scientist proved to the youth that he had simply had his ears closed to classical music by an unfortunate early experience with a teacher, and that his "ear" was perfectly good. The evening instilled in Weidman a love for Bach that never left him. When their hostess asked why they had missed the performance, Einstein smiled: "My young friend here and I were engaged in the greatest activity of which man is capable: opening up yet another fragment of the frontier of beauty."

Beauty was paramount in Einstein's concept of the universe – inspired not least by the "architecture" and "inner unity" he found in the music of Bach and Mozart. "Einstein's work was very much an attempt to unify physics, to explain apparently disparate elements within the same framework," Foster points out.

"He used to say that that framework could be extremely beautiful. Einstein's example in looking for beautiful solutions is still going on today: the work at LHC is very much about unification and beauty." Foster suggests that the LHC's research could fulfil Einstein's dream of understanding the universe in one unified theory.

Lecture and recital are free to those aged 25 and under. And there, perhaps, lies a special relevance, while the Government and many local councils are considering potentially devastating cutbacks to music education. Yet there is a possibility that, without his musical know-how, Einstein might never have made the connections and discoveries that changed the world.

"Playing music opens neural pathways that otherwise might not open," says Liebeck . "It makes cross-references between different areas of the brain that might not connect so readily without it.

"We hear so much on the radio and TV of politicians stressing the importance of the 'three "R"s', but I think it might be more productive if all kids learned to play a musical instrument. It would focus their brains in a much better way."

The performance takes place at St John's, Smith Square, just round the corner from the Houses of Parliament. Government ministers could do worse than pop in and listen.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/features/the-relative-beauty-of-the-violin-2196313.html

Cobie

Jacoba Francisca Maria "Cobie" Smulders[1] (born April 3, 1982) is a Canadian actress and former model, best known for her current role as Robin Scherbatsky on the CBS television series How I Met Your Mother.
Smulders was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, to a Dutch father and a British mother. She was named after her Dutch great-aunt, Jacoba, for which she gained the nickname "Cobie".[2]  Canadian expatriate actors in the United States

Interestingly, in one of the episodes of the show, the plot centered on what was needed for her character to remain in the United States so that she would not have to be deported back to Canada. One suggestion was that one of the characters (Ted or Barney) would marry her so that she could stay. In then end, if I remember, she got a long term job in N.Y. and was able to stay.

Obviously, U.S. citizenship is coveted by many people in other countries. That's why Miki should secure his citizenship, to be amongst the elite who hold what most people want.

http://ts2.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=419576873873&id=cde3bdd4c9eeb0697dac2d42a9a8361f&url=http://eur.i1.yimg.com/eur.yimg.com/ng/mo/premiere_photo/20090914/23/2280553378.jpg