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I got this off Wikipedia so take it with a grain of salt... although I know our ancestors were famously known for cultivating silkworms and trading silk (Yes, we started that shit!!!)

Martin the Armenian was one of the settlers in the Jamestown Colony in Virginia. He is the first known individual of Armenian ancestry to have come to North America. Martin the Armenian was invited to the colony to raise silk worms. Other Armenians were also brought to the colony but they returned to Europe. Armenians were among the first Europeans to come to America.

A man called `Martin ye Armenian' ('ye' corresponds to the modern word 'the' as the glyph 'Y' formerly represented the 'th' sound) was among those who lived in the British colony at Jamestown (founded in 1607), arriving either 1618 or 1619. Later, to help with the raising of silkworms, two more Armenians were invited to the colony. One of them, `George ye Armenian', according to the records, was offered an inducement of 4,000 pounds of tobacco to persuade him to remain and continue his work.

Tags: Armenian History

So like does the U.S. export anything other than porn and weapons? I mean, if you're going to make two countries go to war, at least make it even...

U.S. Congressmen call for parity in military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan
/PanARMENIAN.Net/

In a hearing before the State, Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee in the House of Representatives, lawmakers raised a series of concerns regarding the Administration’s FY 2009 budget proposal for Armenia. Congressmen Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) raised pointed questions regarding the Administration’s proposal to provide Azerbaijan with increased military funding over Armenia, reported the Armenian Assembly of America.

Schiff asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice how the U.S. can justify providing Azerbaijan $900,000 versus only $300,000 for Armenia in Military Education and Training (IMET) assistance. He specifically cited Azerbaijan’s ongoing war rhetoric and large increases in military spending as reason against favoring Baku over Yerevan with additional security funding.

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev recently proclaimed that "Armenia did not win the war. The war is not over. Only the first stage of the war has been completed." He added that Nagorno Karabakh will never be independent.

Knollenberg said it is "not just the rhetoric [from Azerbaijan] but the threat of war," that is most troubling. He said Azerbaijan’s recent cease fire violations were the worst in 10 years, adding that the U.S. should consider discontinuing military funding to Azerbaijan altogether.

"We should either take away military funding to Azerbaijan or threaten to stop it as long as they are threatening Armenia," Knollenberg said, explaining that it is now time to take drastic steps. Knollenberg, along with Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), also issued a strong statement regarding Azerbaijan’s ceasefire violations.

In separate responses to the lawmakers, Secretary Rice said the Administration believes that the request levels for Armenia and Azerbaijan are appropriate. Noting concerns with the recent state of emergency in Armenia, Rice also made reference to the suspension of some U.S. assistance programs to Armenia, and indicated that the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) funding could be put at jeopardy.

"During this critical time, the U.S. should do more to help Armenia’s democratic institutions," said Knollenberg, Co-Chair of the Armenian Caucus. Congressman Schiff added, "The Administration’s justification for reduced aid to Armenia is not a solution."

The Administration’s budget slashed funding to Armenia by nearly 60 percent from $58.5 million in FY 2008 to a proposed level of $24 million in FY 2009. The budget request also called for more military funding for Azerbaijan; a clear breach of the agreement reached with Congress in 2001 regarding military parity for both countries. Executive Director Bryan Ardouny thanked Congressmen Schiff and Knollenberg for raising strong concerns with the Administration’s spending plan with Secretary Rice

"We thank both lawmakers for their leadership on this important issue. Providing asymmetrical military assistance to Azerbaijan violates the will of Congress, subverts the short- and long-term U.S. policy goals for the South Caucasus region, and will only serve to legitimize Azerbaijan’s ongoing blockades against Armenia and Karabakh," Ardouny added.

Tags: Nagorno Karabakh

The Russian Railways company is the only foreign bidder participating in an international tender for the exclusive right to manage the network for at least 30 years. An Indian company, which also submitted a bid to the Armenian Transport Ministry last, pulled out of the tender in November, all but predetermining its outcome.

They are offering to invest $230 million in Armenia’s railway during the first five years of operations and another $240 million in the following years. Russian Railways will also pay the Armenian government $1.7 billion drams ($5.5 million) if it wins the management contract, he said.

“I think they made a very good proposal,” Manukian told reporters. “I am convinced that Russian Railways will restore our infrastructure, provide new trains and repair stations and depots.”

Manukian emphasized that the Russians’ investment commitments are based on the assumption that Armenia will have no rail communication with Turkey and Azerbaijan and that the Abkhaz section of Georgia’s railway linking the region to Russia will remain closed in the foreseeable future. He said they pledged to invest as much as $2.1 billion in Armenia if those rail links again become operational.

The minister also said that the Russian company expects Armenia to have renewed rail communication with Turkey and Azerbaijan in 2009 and 2010 respectively. He refused to comment on this optimistic scenario, referring all questions to the Russian side.

The impending rail deal will leave yet another sector of the Armenian economy under Russian control. Russian firms already dominate Armenia’s energy and telecommunication sectors and are keen to acquire other industries. One of them purchased Armenia’s largest gold mining company late last year. Few details of the deal have been made public so far.

Tags: Armenia News Railway

Why is so much attention given to a pagan holiday? If I see another annoying vermont teddy bear commercial, I swear I'm going to scream, LOL.

Although it is celebrated as a lovers' holiday today, with the giving of candy, flowers, or other gifts between couples in love, it originated in 5th Century Rome as a tribute to St. Valentine, a Catholic bishop.

For eight hundred years prior to the establishment of Valentine's Day, the Romans had practiced a pagan celebration in mid-February commemorating young men's rite of passage to the god Lupercus. The celebration featured a lottery in which young men would draw the names of teenage girls from a box. The girl assigned to each young man in that manner would be his sexual companion during the remaining year.

In an effort to do away with the pagan festival, Pope Gelasius ordered a slight change in the lottery. Instead of the names of young women, the box would contain the names of saints. Both men and women were allowed to draw from the box, and the game was to emulate the ways of the saint they drew during the rest of the year. Needless to say, many of the young Roman men were not too pleased with the rule changes.

Instead of the pagan god Lupercus, the Church looked for a suitable patron saint of love to take his place. They found an appropriate choice in Valentine, who, in AD 270 had been beheaded by Emperor Claudius.

Claudius had determined that married men made poor soldiers. So he banned marriage from his empire. But Valentine would secretly marry young men that came to him. When Claudius found out about Valentine, he first tried to convert him to paganism. But Valentine reversed the strategy, trying instead to convert Claudius. When he failed, he was stoned and beheaded.

During the days that Valentine was imprisoned, he fell in love with the blind daughter of his jailer. His love for her, and his great faith, managed to miraculously heal her from her blindness before his death. Before he was taken to his death, he signed a farewell message to her, "From your Valentine." The phrase has been used on his day ever since.

Although the lottery for women had been banned by the church, the mid-February holiday in commemoration of St. Valentine was still used by Roman men to seek the affection of women. It became a tradition for the men to give the ones they admired handwritten messages of affection, containing Valentine's name.

The first Valentine card grew out of this practice. The first true Valentine card was sent in 1415 by Charles, duke of Orleans, to his wife. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London at the time.

Cupid, another symbol of the holiday, became associated with it because he was the son of Venus, the Roman god of love and beauty. Cupid often appears on Valentine cards.



Tradition of Valentine's Cards

Over the centuries, the holiday evolved, and by the 18th century, gift-giving and exchanging hand-made cards on Valentine's Day had become common in England. Hand-made valentine cards made of lace, ribbons, and featuring cupids and hearts eventually spread to the American colonies.

The tradition of Valentine's cards did not become widespread in the United States, however, until the 1850s, when Esther A. Howland, a Mount Holyoke graduate and native of Worcester, Mass., began mass-producing them. Today, of course, the holiday has become a booming commercial success. According to the Greeting Card Association, 25% of all cards sent each year are valentines.

Tags: Valentines History

Although I usually don't like scientific explanations, I found this article pretty insightful. And yes, its a myth that Armenian men don't cry... a swift kick in the family jewels is enough to shed a tear or two .


Why is it that humans can be reduced to blubbering messes, while other members of the animal kingdom don’t seem to let out even a sniffle?

We have tear ducts to lubricate and protect our eyes from dust and other particles. The ducts are under the upper eyelids and produce a salty liquid—a tear-–-that gets spread throughout the eye after each blink. Animals too have the ability to produce tears, but not necessarily for the same reasons that we humans produce them.

Three types of tears are generated by the human eye. Basal tears protect the eye and keep it moist. Reflex tears flush out the eye when it becomes irritated. And emotional tears flow in response to sadness, distress, or physical pain.

Studies have shown that emotional tears contain more manganese, an element that affects temperament, and more prolactin, a hormone that regulates milk production. Sobbing out manganese and prolactin is thought to relieve tension by balancing the body’s stress levels and eliminating build ups of the chemicals, making the crier feel better.

But this minor physiological benefit aside, the most likely reason we produce emotional tears is because it’s a means of communication. Before babies can speak, they can cry. The only way for infants to express frustration, pain, fear, or need is to cry. Adults may use crying to bond with other humans. Expressing sadness can prompt comfort and support from peers. Different languages can provide barriers to spoken communication, but emotions are universal. There are also culturally acceptable reasons for crying that bring people together, such as at funerals or weddings.

Though there is a significant debate over whether animals have emotions and can express them, some animals do appear to cry for emotional reasons. Elephants seem to grieve when a family member dies and will guard the body and travel long distances to view it. Elephant experts at the London Zoo once told Charles Darwin that the animals do indeed mourn. Chimpanzees also appear to cry, but some scientists still insist that the tears released by these animals are strictly for cleaning the eye.

Whether or not animals shed tears for emotional reasons has yet to be scientifically proven. Humans, however, can and do dissolve into tears for any number of reasons. Cleansing the eye, relieving stress, conveying pain, communication, and societal assimilation can all lead to an empty tissue box.

Tags: Crying Cry Emotions

Shnoravor Nor Dari!!

Sometimes you have to forget who you've been to become who you're going to be

Tags: New Year

Christmas in an Engineer's Mind

There are approximately two billion children (persons under 18) in the world. However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or Buddhist (except maybe in Japan) religions, this reduces the workload for Christmas night to 15% of the total, or 378 million (according to the population reference bureau). At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that comes to 108 million homes, presuming there is at least one good child in each. Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000 th of a second to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stocking, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney, jump into the sleigh and get onto the next house.

Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks. This means Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second -- 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run (at best) 15 miles per hour.

The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized LEGO set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500 thousands tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the "flying" reindeer can pull 10 times he normal amount, the job can't be done with eight or even nine of them---Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch).

600,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance - this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft reentering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip.

Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of accelerating from a dead stop to 650 m.p.s. in .001 seconds, would be subjected to acceleration forces of 17,000 g's. A 250 pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo. Therefore, if Santa did exist, he's dead now.

Shnoravor Sourp Znount!!! (Merry Christmas)

Tags: Christmas

Because Everyone In Canada Lives In An Igloo.

Now that Vancouver has won the chance to host the 2010 Winter
Olympics, these are some questions people from all over the world are asking. Believe it or not these questions about Canada were posted on an International Tourism Website. Obviously the answers are a joke; but the questions were really asked!


Q:I have never seen it warm on Canadian TV, so how do the plants grow?( England )

A. We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around and
watch them die.



Q:Will I be able to see Polar Bears in the street? ( USA )

A: Depends on how much you've been drinking.



Q:I want to walk from Vancouver to Toronto. Can I follow the railroad tracks? ( Sweden )

A: Sure, it's only Four thousand miles, take lots of water.



Q:Is it safe to run around in the bushes in Canada ? ( Sweden )

A: So it's true what they say about Swedes.



Q: Are there any ATM's (cash machines) in Canada ? Can you send me a list of them in Toronto , Vancouver , Edmonton and Halifax ? (England)

A: What, did your last slave die?



Q:Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Canada ? (USA )

A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle-shaped continent south of Europe . Ca-na-da is that big country to your North...oh forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Calgary. Come naked.



Q:Which direction is North in Canada ? ( USA )

A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions.



Q: Can I bring cutlery into Canada ?( England )

A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.



Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? ( USA )

A: Aus-t ri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is...oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Vancouver and in Calgary, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.



Q: Do you have perfume in Canada ? ( Germany )

A: No, WE don't stink.



Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Where can I sell it in Canada ?( USA )

A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.



Q: Can you tell me the regions in British Columbia where the female population is smaller than the male population? ( Italy )

A: Yes, gay nightclubs.



Q: Do you celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada ? ( USA )

A: Only at Thanksgiving.



Q: Are there supermarkets in Toronto and is milk available all year round?( Germany )

A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of Vegan hunter/gathers. Milk is illegal.



Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Canada , but I forget its name. It's a kind of big horse with horns. ( USA )

A: It's called a Moose. They are tall and very violent, eating the brains of anyone walking close to them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.



Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? ( USA )

A: Yes, but you will have to learn it first.



Please send this on to any Canadian (or others) who you think will enjoy it as much as I did.

Tags: Funny Canada Canadian

What in the world is wrong with people? Don't they see how ridiculous they look? He looks like like a freaking wax statue... he didn't stumble upon the fountain of youth, everyone knows how old he's supposed to look. Is he really fooling himself? What a fool.

http://celebritycosmeticsurgery.blogspot.com/2007/10/wayne-newton-plastic-surgery.html

Tags: Celebrities

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